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"Good governance at local level ”

On the first of February 2010 the SAYC participants get a chance to visit the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).

We, the people of Pune, blame the officials at the PMC for not taking up their responsibilities but taking care of a city is not an easy task. Fortunately, the officers at PMC were able to give detailed information on what kind of initiative they are taking to tackle the city`s problems. We got a chance to know about both sides of the coin. Ahmed Ameez from the Maldives also felt that the PMC could encourage citiziens to follow the rules rather than letting the policy take action. But there was also criticism on the governing body of Pune; Meena from India agreed with the speakers when they said that abortion is not only just doctor`s responsibility but couples should support each other and their families should take responsibility as well, she felt that the government should spread more awareness through various modes of media on this issue. And Hussain Fayaz from the Maldives mentioned that the statistical data during the presentation was a bit heavy for him but he got insight into Pune`s environmental problems, he could relate although he feels that the Maldives don`t face environmental problems to that degree.

Environment is an issue that has been taken up by the administrative body of Pune and they have set an ambitious goal for themselves. Mr. V. Kulkarni shared with us the vision of making the rivers of Pune alive again and uses them as a mode of transport. Finally he proposed that Pune would be pollution free by 2015.

‘Jihad’, a word often misrepresented

On the second day the participants also visit the Foundation of Liberal Arts and Management Education (FLAME) to hear Mr. Ram Puniyani speak about political issues, religion, terrorism and different communities.

He talked about the reasons which are leading to fights among religions across countries. He emphasized that terrorism is not specific to Islam. He clarified a ‘terrorist’ is someone who kills human beings for political or social benefit.

Mr. Puniyani talked about ‘Jihad’ and also explained the meaning of the word. In Islam there are two kinds of jihad: Jihad-e-Akbar, the big Jihad, which means the fight against the evil inside us; and Jihad-e-Asghar; the small Jihad, which means the fight against invasion inflicted by another power on your country or on your religion.