The activists of the ‘Making a Difference by Being a Difference (MAD), a prominent social group organized a Youth Parliament on Saturday. The objective of the event was to highlight important issues faced by the state.
About 50 students took part in the first phase of the programme in which they represented the three prominent political parties of the state, the Congress, Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP), and Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD). The organisers have planned a total of six sessions for the event out of which three were held on Saturday.
The event highlighted six key issues related to state like ‘Sanitation in Uttarakhand’, ‘Environment policy of Uttarakhand’, ‘Rejuvenation of Streams in Uttarakhand’, ‘Tourism, Migration and Sustainable Development’ and ‘Five major problems and five solution to save Uttarakhand’. The founder of MAD, Abhijay Negi said, “The programme was organized with an idea of generating a common knowledge among our young students about the city and our state. We held a test in 23 schools in which around 50 students were selected from 18 schools. They were further provided with the reading material for the Youth parliament event. Sadly we found that the students are taught more about global issues however they have a very bleak knowledge about their own city or the state. A majority of students failed to answer what Rispana river which passed through Dehradun. It is very important the students have the basic knowledge about the city they are living and the issues there city is facing. The more students will be aware the more steps will be successful to save our state.”
Panel judge of the event and environmentalist Paramjeet Singh said, “It is very important the future generation of our state knows the problem that our state is facing. The more aware will be the youth the more steps will be taken to save our place on time.”
A student representing Congress party in the Parliament, Neha Ahuja said, “Many of us were not aware about Rispana and many other seasonal rivers. Similarly the problem of migration and importance of the sustainable development is not known to children. This programme was very enlightening and it also gave us a chance to know more about our state.”