Srinagar : The Department of Public Administration, Amar Singh College, Cluster University Srinagar on Friday organized an extension lecture on the theme “Public Service and Crisis Management: The Role of the Office of the Divisional Commissioner during the Covid-19 Pandemic”, by Tahir Ahmad Magray.
Tahir Ahmad Magray is a JKAS Officer who served as Incharge Divisional Covid Control Room Kashmir and InchargeAmarnathji control room and works with Divisional Commissioner Kashmir.
The function was attended by Principal Amar Singh College, Professor Bashir Ahmad Rather, faculty members and students of various departments of the college.
In his inaugural speech, Prof. Bashir Ahmad Rather 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.
With vast experience in crisis management, Tahir Ahmad Magray 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 besides keeping check on misinformation and disinformation.
He gave a sketch about citizen-administration partnership and community dimension that was at work during crisis management.
He highlighted the role of social media during Covid-19 and also highlighted the efforts to tackle fake news. He added that crisis management utilizes all the principles of administration during policy implementation and monitoring.
Magray put effort into creating a Toll free mental health helpline for counseling drug victims to bring them into the mainstream.
Besides, he also presented his ideas for rationalization of the use of the internet to protect youth from wasting valuable time and energy.
Dr Zubair Nazeer, Head of the 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, he said.
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.
