Union Minister urged for rechristening of SKUAST-J

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Jan 22: SKUAST Teaching Association Jammu (SKUAST-TAJ) met Kailash Choudhary, Union Minister of State for Agriculture, during his visit to the university campus and demanded rechristening of SKUAST-Jammu.
Dr Vinod Gupta, executive member & committee convener of SKUAST-TAJ, requested the minister that the common name of two varsities in the same Union Territory i.e., SKUAST – Jammu and SKUAST -Kashmir was creating a lot of controversy and confusions among the masses.
He urged that SKUAST-Jammu should be rechristened as Jammu Agriculture University. SKUAST- Jammu have ample staff and resources, efficient faculty members, KVKs and research stations in all districts of Jammu province to cater the needs of farmers in far flung areas that have suffered political as well as developmental alienation since independence, he added.
Dr Gupta further said that there was a strong resentment among the farming community, civil society and intellectual of Jammu region regarding the nomenclature of the agricultural varsity. They have the opinion that their identity is suppressed by prefixing the name Sher-e-Kashmir before Agricultural University of Jammu, he added and demanded rechristening of SKUAST-J as Jammu Agricultural University.