By Mohammad Mudassir Alam for TwoCircles.net,
The proposed AMU Centre at Kishanganj hit the national media headlines after it miss the token grant of about Rs 50 crore in Union Budget for 2013 – 14. As soon P Chidambaram, Minister of Finance finished his budget speech on February 28, 2013, hopes shattered for thousands of AMU Kishanganj lovers. The Congress led UPA government including its Member of Parliament and MLAs from Kishanganj were widely criticized for neglecting the token grant for the proposed campus of AMU. People from the area started questioning Maulana Asrarul Haque Qasmi, MP from Kishanganj and pressurized him in different ways.
In hurry, in order to cool down the irate people from the district and adjoining areas, Maulana Qasmi had issued a statement that he would get the fund released for AMU Kishanganj within seven days. Meanwhile, the MP from Kishanganj talked with Union Minister of HRD Pallam Raju and got a written consent in a short while that the University had been directed to go ahead with DPR (Detailed Project Report) / DFR (Detailed Feasibility Report) preparation.
AMU Kishanganj: a piece of land.
However, Maulana Qasmi mistook the words of HRD Minister, and during press conference at Kishanganj on March 8, 2013, he said that his government had released Rs 30 lakh for AMU Kishanganj to university. The next day, the statement of MP Kishanganj published in newspapers as “Centre allocates fund for opening special campus of Aligarh Muslim University in Kishanganj”, which was totally a misleading headline. In fact, the letter from MHRD says that it has asked the University to use Rs 30 lakh from its budget for DPR / DFR preparation. Nowhere, the letter says that the MHRD or government had released separate Rs. 30 lakh fund for AMU Kishanganj.
Now back to the point, how much time AMU Kishanganj is going to take for release of Rs 30 – 50 crore token budget? When contacted with Human Chain, a non-government society working as a coordination group among the AMU administration, Govt of Bihar and Centre, president Mohammad Aslam said, “If things happen in proper manner without any controversy or official delay further.” Simply, “AMU Kishanganj will take at least six months for fulfillment of formalities till it gets the token grant”, told Aslam.
Further he added, “the university is in talk with a NOIDA based DPR / DFR preparation agency and asking for final quote. Once the quote (price) for the DPR / DFR preparation is accepted by the university, the agency requires at least two months / 60 days for giving final touch to the project. After receiving the DPR /DFR the University will push it ahead to Ministry of HRD. Further the MHRD as per process will place the DPR / DFR before the EFC (Expenditure Finance Committee) for clearance. The EFC will take time to review the proposal for AMU Kishanganj. If the committee finds everything OK then it will give go ahead signal for the grant of token budget of Rs 30 – 50 crore. The fulfillment of official formalities have many stake-holders, hence the token grant for AMU Kishanganj will take at least 6 months.”
The core-team members of Human Chain Khalid Mubashshir, Minnat Rahmani, Mujahid Akhtar, Dr. Touquir Rahi, Tauquir Alam (JNU), Tarique Sufyan, Taqueer Alam (MSW), Ghaznafar Elahi, Mumtaz Naiyer (NRI), Khaiyam Akhtar (NRI), Shah Firoz, Salam Anwar, Naseem Haider among many other have requested the concerned authorities to fasten up the fulfillment of official formalities earliest possible in order to ensure start of academic session on time at Kishanganj.
Need of the hour is that the elected representatives from Congress party and also from other political parties must provide respect to Great Sir Syed Ahmad Khan’s Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) and its proposed centre at Kishanganj. Treating the proposal of AMU Kishanganj as political agenda is not right on moral grounds, this is casting bad name to the legendary university serving to the nation since pre-independence era. Most importantly, the elected representatives from ruling party don’t give misleading statement or make false promises regarding AMU Kishanganj. Nothing is going to happen earlier than five to six months.