By Siddhant Mohan, TwoCircles.net
In an attempt to draw the Central government’s attention towards the off-centre campuses of Aligarh Muslim University, Asaduddin Owaisi, national president at All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen and Lok Sabha MP, has written to Union Ministry for the release of funds for Kishanganj, Murshidabad, and Malappuram centres.
Owaisi has objected the UGC’s move where the University Grants Commission stated that there is little justification to run AMU’s off-campus centres. Asaduddin Owaisi, in his letter to the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development, said, “I would like to put forward my strongest objection to this position taken by the UGC and demand that the same be reconsidered by the government.”
UGC’s audit report over AMU had justified the Muslim population in the cities where the centres are being located. Moreover, former minister of Human Resource Development Smriti Irani termed these centres “illegal” – which sparked a debate – and said that these centres could not be funded.
Owaisi has further written, “The three centres mentioned above have a substantial population with no access to good education facilities and economic opportunities in particular.”
However, the AIMIM leader particularly emphasized upon the Kishanganj centre – possibly because AIMIM fielded several candidates from this area in Bihar assembly election in 2015 – and claimed that Kishanganj is “very socially, economically and educationally backward compared to the rest of the country”.
AMU Kishanganj Centre was announced in 2008-09 during UPA’s regime but it still has been in uncertainty due to lack of appropriate funds. Due to lack of government’s attention, the Kishanganj centre lies in horrible condition with its boundary wall being submerged in floods every year.
The Kishanganj centre has no allocated and specified buildings and the hostel rooms are being used to run classes due to lack of the building. The MHRD allocated a fund of Rs 136.82 Crore for the Kishanganj centre in 2014 itself. Out of this amount, Rs 104.23 Crore was marked for the development of capital assets in the Kishanganj centre. But the Centre has only received the first instalment of the same after allocation.
“Your government’s central agenda over the past three years has been that of “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas” and this project will go a long way in making this slogan a reality,” wrote Owaisi further.
It must be pointed out that the AMU’s Murshidabad centre is no different from Kishanganj centre when it comes to the negligence of the central government. The Murshidabad centre – which is a minority-dominated locality in West Bengal – received only Rs 60 Crore of its allocated fund of Rs 107.8 Crore in August 2013.