Kalash Nath
Kishtwar
In order to provide a platform to the college students from Jammu and Kashmir, the Departments of English GDC Chatroo and Govt PG College Bhaderwah organised a UT Level Online Poetry Competition. The competition was organised under the patronage and supervision of Dr Shafqat Hussain Rafiqi Principal GDC Chatroo and Dr Kuldeep Kumar Sharma Principal Govt PG College Bhaderwah.
Prof Naz Zargar HoD English Govt PG College Bhaderwah and Dr Jamsheed Ahmad HoD English GDC Chatroo were the chief organisers of the event.
The e-flyer of the event was released on 16 December 2021 (Nissim Ezekiel’s Birth Anniversary) and the poems were accepted till 27 December 2021 (Mirza Ghalib’s Birth Anniversary).
With an overwhelming response around 100 poems from the students from more than 15 districts of the UT were received by the organisers.
In the first step, 16 poems were shortlisted by the organisers and were sent to three judges for the final judgement. In order to maintain the highest degree of impartiality and transparency, the shortlisted poems were evaluated through a blind review.
While talking to this correspondent the chief organiser said, “During these unprecedented times when we are struggling with COVID pandemic, we decided to organise this competition last year. It was held successfully in the month of June 2020. This year we wanted to make it a collaborative effort so we approached PG College Bhaderwah and planned to organise the competition again”. He further added that the department believes that such competitions shall encourage the students to get involved in literary activities and shall further help them to study and learn the English language.
The team of judges comprised of a senior college professor from Jammu and Kashmir, a multilingual poet from Jammu and a faculty from Jamia Milia Islamia New Delhi.
Sapna Devi from Govt College of Education Jammu and Bhushan Singh from Govt Degree College Doda secured the third and second prize respectively whereas Neelufar Jabeen Govt Women College Srinagar got the first prize.
Seven consolation prizes were also given to the students.
In their messages, the patrons congratulated both the organisers for this collaborative initiative and expressed their satisfaction on the successful completion of the event. They assured of full support and urged the other faculty members to organise such events in future.