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| SKUAST (J): Agri Minister has two yardsticks | | | NEHA
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Dec 11: Jammu province has been getting a raw deal at all levels since October 1947. Even impartial investigators have candidly acknowledged that Jammu province has never got its due share in any of the spheres, political or otherwise. In other words, discrimination with the people of this province is real and the charge of the people that they have been rendered unreal and ineffective for all practical purposes cannot be construed as a manifestation of their biased attitude towards Kashmir.
Only the other day, two of the four members of the State Finance Commission - Swami Raj Sharma and Sonam Dawa - put out official statistics and figures to indicate the extent to which the people of Jammu province have been ignored since 1992. It is a different matter that Chairman of the Commission, Mehmood-ur-Rehman, and Nissar Ali from Kashmir refused to incorporate in the final report the findings of Sharma and Dawa. The objective of Rehman and Ali obviously was to convey an impression that there is nothing that could even remotely suggest that Jammu and Ladakh stood ignored.
Yesterday, the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology's (SKUAST) Teachers' Association accused the concerned authorities of making humiliating, invidious and unjust distinctions between the SKUAST, Jammu, and the SKUAST, Kashmir, and demanded government's intervention so that the Jammu-based agricultural university gets its legitimate due. Even a cursory look at what the SKUAST's teachers' association said would be enough to determine the extent to which the Jammu-based agricultural university has been discriminated against and ignored.
What exactly is the complaint of the teachers' association? What exactly has it demanded? Is its demand irrational and unjustifiable? It has expressed grave concern over the manner in which the concerned authorities have been dealing with this institution the people of Jammu got in 1998 after years of struggle. It became functional only in 1999. The teachers' association has said that the authorities have two yardsticks - one for the Jammu-based agricultural university and other for the Kashmir-based agricultural university.
In this regard, the teachers' association has taken the Agriculture Minister to task for his insistence on a "written assurance from the university for employment of students before opening the already approved College of Dairy Technology in SKUAST, Jammu." The teachers' association has asked if no such assurance was sought before starting such technical and professional courses as B. Tech in Information Technology, Computer Sciences, Microbiology and Engineering and opening more than 100 B.ED colleges in state where more than 20,000 students get admission every year in J&K, why this pre-condition for the setting up of the already sanctioned College of Dairy Technology in SKUAST, Jammu? The teachers' association is absolutely right when it questions the reasons behind the Agriculture Minister's questionable insistence. How could the concerned minister insist on such a condition? To provide jobs is the responsibility of the government and not of the institutions that impart instructions and train the youth.
The teachers' association has also made a point by saying that the concerned authorities are not allowing the SKUAST, Jammu, to grow. In this regard, it has said that while "this university has only two colleges since its inception in 1999, despite the approval of four more colleges, five years back," in the sister university (SKUAST, Kashmir), "five colleges have already started functioning." It has rightly accused the authorities of according a step-motherly treatment to the SKUAST-Jammu, just because it was established much against the wishes of the Kashmiri-dominated government. Remember, the then government had to yield because the people of Jammu province were on the warpath. Had the State government not conceded the people's demand, the government would have surely collapsed.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah must intervene and undo the wrong the concerned authorities, including the Kashmir-based Agriculture Minister in his Cabinet, committed. Such an intervention on the part of the Chief Minister has become imperative considering the widespread resentment in the SKUAST, Jammu. Such an intervention and setting up of the already sanctioned colleges for the Jammu-based agricultural university without any pre-condition would go a long way in ameliorating the lot of the marginal and small farmers in Jammu province and creating job opportunities. Besides, the opening of the sanctioned colleges would cater to the needs of those desirous of seeking admission in these colleges. All in all, the opening of more agricultural colleges in Jammu would benefit the whole of the state and create a sense of belonging in Jammu province. |
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