Srinagar September 16 (KNS): The Department of Public Administration, Amar Singh College, Srinagar organized an extension lecture on “Public Service and Crisis Management: The Role of the Office of the Divisional Commissioner during the Covid-19 Pandemic.” Delivered by Tahir Ahmad Magray (JKAS-2012) Officer on Special Duty (OSD) with Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir.
Principal of the host college, Prof. Bashir Ahmad Rather in his inaugural speech highlighted the role of administration and public servants during crisis management. He also reflected on the role of faculty and students during Covid-19 and close coordination among various departments to deal with the pandemic. He elucidated how the higher education sector during the pandemic introduced various disruptive innovations with positive impact on academic culture.
Tahir Ahmad Magray (JKAS) in his lecture presented a detailed account of the working of the office of Divisional Commissioner and reflected on the various innovations and reforms in this institution over the years. He explained the various steps that were taken by the administration to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic from strategic planning to coordination with various departments to augment human resources, medical infrastructure and technical expertise. He highlighted the role of social media during Covid-19 and also highlighted the efforts to tackle fake news. He concluded by saying crisis management utilizes all the principles of administration during policy implementation and monitoring.
Dr Zubair Nazeer, Head, Department of Public administration reflected upon various theoretical principles of crisis management. He emphasized upon the fact that there is a huge difference in theory and practice. Public servants have to use their own initiative and steps to deal with crisis like Covid-19 with a fine balance between theory and practice.
Prof. Tafazul Hussain from the Department of Political Science in his concluding remarks stated that the crisis management tests the resilience of the administration. He stated that public servants use their experience and decision making in tackling crisis like Covid-19 pandemic.
The function was attended by a large number of faculty members and students of various of the college.(KNS)