The Hindu : New Delhi News : "Students cannot be stopped from smoking "

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Thursday, Oct 05, 2006
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New Delhi

"Students cannot be stopped from smoking "

Making Jawaharlal Nehru University a completely smoke-free campus may still be a distant dream with the JNU Students' Union (JNUSU) president Mona Das stating that a ban would not be a practical solution since the university is a residential campus.

"Though in principle we agree that there should be a reduction in the sale and use of tobacco and its products, the decision of the university's Campus Development Committee (CDC) to ban eateries on the campus from selling cigarettes and other tobacco products cannot be a blanket rule," said Ms. Das.

The JNUSU president added that while the CDC had been pushing for the ban, there was a need to understand that the ban cannot be extended to residential areas. "Students cannot be stopped from smoking on the campus anyway, so how will a ban on the sale of cigarettes help?" asked Ms. Das, adding that smoking was not allowed in the academic complex and the students do abide by that rule.

Earlier, the CDC had floated a proposal to request kiosk owners on the campus to shift to selling products other than tobacco like soft drinks and snacks. But the move was deferred as there were not many takers for it.

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In what is probably a first of its kind, Jamia Millia Islamia Vice-Chancellor Mushirul Hasan and media coordinator Rakshanda Jalil have co-authored an illustrated history of the university. Titled "Partners in Freedom: Jamia Millia Islamia", it has been brought out in four colours by Niyogi Books.

The book attempts to unravel the nationalistic legacy of the university and place it in the context of nationalist freedom movement. It also narrates its history since its inception as a modest institution to the present when it has become a bustling modern Central University.

Launched in 1920, Jamia was nurtured by men and women deeply committed to the nationalistic cause who adhered to the notion of composite culture and the need to provide education that would combine modern learning with traditional values to modern Indians, said Ms. Jalil.

The book was released by Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh at the India National Pavilion in the Frankfurt Book Fair, Germany, on Wednesday.

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InfoXpression, the three-day annual festival of the School of Information Technology (SIT) of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIPU) in Delhi, was held from September 28. The extravaganza brought out the best of talent from the students and witnessed several activities that included light-hearted events like "ad-mad" and "laughter challenge".

With students from other universities also participating in the event, there was keen competition in every discipline, particularly so in the `scholarly' extempore, debates and creative writing. Apart from these events, "handi tod", "antaskhari" and "just-a-minute" were also organised during the festival, which provided an opportunity to the students to unwind.

While the sports lovers had events like beach volley, volleyball, chess, badminton and table tennis to participate in, the aspiring software experts had quizzes on C++ quiz, programming in java, debugging and graphic challenge to look forward to.

The student body of the school, Students' Association of Information Technology, which had organised the festival, had also arranged for screening of movies for entertainment of the students.

This was the seventh year of the annual festival in which students from Delhi University, IIT, Delhi College of Engineering, College of Engineering (Roorkee), Birla Institute of Technology and Science (Pilani), Pune University and Guru Jambeshwar University (Hisar) participated.

-- Prashant Pandey

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