Debate on the topic, “September 2014 flood was a manmade catastrophe?” at Srinagar

Students of various colleges on Saturday debated the reasons for last year’s flood which caused massive devastation of property in the summer capital. With forceful arguments and examples, the students tried to prove their point whether the flood was natural or man-made. On the occasion, Vice Chancellor of the University of Kashmir Prof Khurshid Iqbal Andrabi Saturday stressed on protection of environment.

Chairing a valedictory function of a debate competition in the campus, Prof Andrabi said, “the importance of environment cannot be underestimated. We as people need to be conscious of the importance of protecting our environment for the welfare of ourselves and our future generations,” he said. “Whatever the reasons behind devastating floods last year were, whether natural or man-made, we have to be cautious with our actions vis-à-vis environment,” he said. The Vice-Chancellor gave away prizes among winners of the debate on the topic, “September 2014 flood was a manmade catastrophe?” The debate was organized by J&K Chapter of Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA) in collaboration with Department of Students Welfare, University of Kashmir and Central University of Kashmir.

Government College for Women, MA Road Srinagar, lifted the winning trophy. 36 students from various colleges and universities participated in the annual debating competition. In individual category, Najamus Saqib from Government Degree College Ganderbal, Nisheet Zehbi from Women’s College MA Road, and Syed Areej from Women`s College MA Road bagged the first, second and third prizes respectively. Muhammad Taskeen Sofi and Hannan Momin from KU’s Department of Law won the first and second consolation prize respectively. In his address, CUK Vice Chancellor Prof Mehraj-ud-din Mir said: “It is debatable whether the deluge of 2014 was natural or man-made, but we as humans have definitely multiplied our problems by our unwarranted interventions and actions with nature.” He announced that the CUK in collaboration with IIPA is soon undertaking a research project into “causes and reasons” of September-2014 floods. A M Watali, Vice Chairman IIPA (J&K Regional Branch), Prof Neelofar Khan Dean, Students Welfare KU and Prof SM Afzal Qadri, Director Seminars IIPA (J&K Regional Branch) also spoke on the occasion, The debate completion was coordinated by SGM Andrabi, Joint Secretary IIPA (J&K Regional Branch and Shahid Ali Khan, Cultural Officer DSW KU. Showket Shafi, Deputy Director DIQA KU and Suhaib Hassan (System Engineer IT&SS KU) were the judges for the competition. Liaison Officer KU Ozair Nissar presented a brief report of the debate on the occasion.