Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 29: A meeting of the office bearers of SKUAST- Teaching Association Jammu (SKUAST-TAJ) was held here today to discuss the issue regarding the change in the name of only farm and professional varsity of Jammu Division.
President SKUAST-TAJ, Dr Vikas Sharma informed that common name of two varsities in the same Union Territory, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences & Techn-ology of Jammu (SKUAST-J) and Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences & Technology of Kashmir (SKUAST-K) was creating a lot of controversies and confusions among the masses. Therefore, he added, rechristening of SKUAST-J as Jammu Agricultural University is very essential for its separate identity at national level and also this name is easily pronounced and easily identified at global level.
Maintaining that people of Jammu are not emotionally attached with the nomenclature assigned to this agricultural varsity, he said that rechristening of SKUAST-J as Jammu Agricultural University will be a good confidence building measure for the Jammu people, who have struggled a lot for this Agricultural University. “Jammu people feel that their identity is suppressed by prefixing the name Sher-e-Kashmir before Agricultural University of Jammu,” he said.
Dr Vivak M Arya, General Secretary of the Association, stressed that SKUAST-K being an old Agricultural Institution is preferred at State /Territory level as for the approval of at least three more faculties and one division whereas SKUAST-J is still awaiting nod of the Agriculture Production Department and the Planning Department since 2005 notwithstanding the detailed and point-wise justification of the proposal as well as reply to all the queries with regard to required staff strength and budget estimates for the same.
“Because of the same name, funds of SKUAST-Jammu are variously transferred to SKUAST-Kashmir from ICAR and it consumes a lot of effort, energy and time to bring back these funds of our university, which ultimately delays the process to bring the latest technologies to the door steps of farmers in far flung areas of Jammu region,” he explained.
During the meeting, the Association constituted a committee comprising of Dr Vinod Gupta, Dr Narinder Panotra and Dr Sanjay Khajuria to prepare a detail report for rechristening of Agricultural University and actively take up the issue with the concerned quarters. The meeting was attended by Dr P K Rai, Dr Devinder Sharma, Dr Rajeev Bharat and others.
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