The team comprising Ms. Gurpriya Wraich and Ms. Kritika Khanna of the Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, won the Ist “Annual North Zone Inter-University Debating Competition Trophy” which has been instituted by Governor N. N. Vohra. This Competition was organized by the University of Kashmir in its premises. The Governor was the Chief Guest at the Valedictory Function.The topic of the Inter-University Debate was “Laws are not powerless in preventing crime against Women and Children”. Students from Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar; Lovely Professional University, Phagwara; Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra; Central University Kashmir, Srinagar; Islamic University of Science and Technology, Awantipora; University of Jammu, Jammu; Kashmir University and several of its affiliated colleges participated in the contest.
The Governor observed that this Rolling Trophy was instituted with the objective of enabling young students of J&K and the neighbouring northern states to participate in the annual debates and enhancing their communications skills. The Governor congratulated Prof. Khurshid Iqbal Andrabi, Vice- Chancellor and Prof. Nilofer Khan, Dean of Students Welfare, Kashmir University for organizing this important event.Highlighting the significance of such competitions, the Governor observed that such events are valuable for enhancing the confidence of students to speak in public. He said that debating important matters would enable the youth to enlarge their understanding, clarity of thought and perception, and the power to critically analyze and assess the pro and cons of complex public issues.
The Governor recalled that some years ago he had instituted a Silver Rolling Trophy for the Government College Jammu to organize Annual Inter-State (Northern Zone) Declamation Contests in which students of many Colleges in J&K and Colleges in the northern regions have been participating. Based on this success he had instituted a similar Trophy for the Government College for women, Srinagar. He observed that the idea behind instituting these trophies was to provide increasing opportunities to the students of each of the three regions of the State to be able to compete with students from various colleges in the Northern Zone States and debate their views on topics of high public importance and relevant for securing rapid socio-economic development, particularly in the context of the J&K State.
The Governor observed that sports, essay competitions, debates, declamations and other such competitive events should be given high encouragement from the school to the University levels and sustained efforts should be made to ensure the widest possible participation of students, particularly from the remote areas of the State. He suggested to the Vice Chancellors to organize such competitions at the offsite campuses of their Universities and requested Prof. Andrabi, Vice Chancellor Kashmir University to help draw up an annual calendar of such contests in the colleges and universities in which the Governor’s Trophies had been instituted.Prof. Khurshid Iqbal Andrabi, Vice Chancellor, University of Kashmir; Prof. Nilofer Khan, Dean Students Welfare; Prof. M.A. Wani, Dean Academic affairs shared their views on the occasion and agreed about the importance of organizing such events for the youth.
Audio visual recordings of the Competition held in the past 2 days were shown during the function.Later, the Governor presented the Rolling Trophy to the winning team and also gave Ist,, 2nd, 3rd and two Consolation Prizes which included mementoes and cash prizes to the top five contestants.