In view of the forthcoming civic polls,the district administration has asked the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) to either postpone the screening of a series of documentary films on civic issues,or restrict the audience to the students. District Collector Harit Shukla wrote to the IIM-A director on Friday,requesting the screenings be limited to the students till October 12 or to postpone the screening even for the students. The students of the Public Systems Group at IIM-A had as part of their course projects shot several short documentary films on various government policies in the state. The ten-minute film prepared by the IIM-A students as part of a course programme highlights some of the policy issues on working of salt pan workers in Little Rann of Kutch. The institute had scheduled the screening of these short films for Saturday,and had invited several civic authorities and officials to attend. It was,however,not open to the public. After the Collectors letter,IIM-A professors emailed and called those they had invited,cancelling the invitations. The film screenings are part of an academic course and we have invited interested individuals from outside the campus including yourselves to attend the event to give valuable feedback on the research done by students,However I regret to inform you that we will no longer be able to keep the event open to you, the email read.
