The Valley of Words (VoW) Foundation Trust in association with Mantrana Debating Society of DAV PG College, Dehradun is organising a National Debate Championship 2020 for all the college students. This competition has four stages which will begin from October 11 and the final will be held on November 22.
According to the director of Mantrana Debating Society, Onima Sharma, the preliminary round will be conducted by four different institutions including DAV College Management Authority, New Delhi and Department of Higher Education of Haryana while the remaining three rounds will be conducted by VoW and Mantrana Debating Society. She further informed that the registration has already begun for the competition and the last date to register is September 30.
"There is no registration fee charged by us to enter the competition and all the four rounds will be conducted online. Besides, we will also present cash prizes of Rs 51,000 and Rs 31,000 to the first and second position holders respectively besides trophies and certificates. The two runners up will also receive cash prize of Rs 11,000. All the participants will be given e-certificates and their trophies will be sent to them later," added Sharma.
The trustee of VoW foundation, Rashmi Chopra said that the motive behind this debate is to promote literature and art of public speaking among the young generation. On the question of whether those students pursuing distance education in open universities like IGNOU can register themselves in the competition, Sharma said that any student of any age with a valid identity card can participate in the competition. "It does not matter if a student is 25 or 50, if he or she possesses a valid identity card of a college besides other documents, they are permitted to participate," added Sharma.
Meanwhile, the organisers also informed that they soon will be organising a debate in Sanskrit too.