By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter
Murshidabad, one of the most densely populated districts of the state of West Bengal, does not have a single full-fledged University and students from various groups have started a protest to demand for the same.
In a press meet held in Kolkata Press Club on November 8, Students Islamic Organisation of India (SIO) announced that they will lead a 10-day long campaign for a university in Murshidabad district.
SIO state president Osman Gani said, “The legitimate demand to set up a full-fledged University is the need of the hour.”
SIO is also planning to march against the same. “We are going to march to the West Bengal Assembly on November 21 against this selective discrimination and educational deprivation,” said Gani.
He also said, “The demand for a university in Murshidabad is the long-term aspiration of about 80 lakh people in the area and it is at the verge of explosion.”
The demand for a University in Murshidabad, which has a majority Muslim population, has been going on for the past several years.
To address the same, the Aligarh Muslim University established AMU Murshidabad Centre in 2010 which became functional recently. However, AMU’s centre alone, according to the students, is not sufficient to address the educational deficit in Murshidabad. With a population of 71.04 lakh, the district has a low literacy rate (66.59 percent) in comparison to national (74.04 percent) and the state averages (76.26 percent).
Due to the continuous negligence of the state machineries, the area is educationally backward and poorly developed, which are grave matters of concern. This is one of the reasons that a larger number of construction labours throughout the country are from Murshidabad, claimed the SIO through a press statement.
Other districts of West Bengal have got more than one universities though their population is lesser than Murshidabad. Neighbouring Nadia District has 5.1 million populations and got three university, and Birbhum district has 3.5 million populations and has been given two universities. But Murshidabad has a population of about 7.5 million and still struggling to get a single university, said the press statement issued by the students of Hyderabad Central University belonging to West Bengal.
Bengali Students of Hyderabad Central University expressed their solidarity with the ongoing protest demanding a university in Murshidabad and also condemned the selective discrimination by the previous governments and the present government.
West Bengal saw 30 years of Congress ruling, 34 years of the left and now 7 years of Trinamool Congress, but Murshidabad is yet to see the face of a proper, full-fledged university. The protesting students marked the fact and accused ruling parties of selectively discriminating against Murshidabad.
“Why this step-motherly attitude towards Murshidabad? Is it because Murshidabad is one of the Muslim-majority districts of India?” asked students of Hyderabad Central University through the press statement.