By Najiya O., TwoCircles.net
Kochi: The Kerala government will acquire the land at Perinthalmanna in Malappuram for setting up the off-campus centre of the Aligarh Muslim University in the state within four months. The decision was taken in the high level meeting of the Ministers and officials concerned that took place in the Legislative Assembly Hall yesterday in Thiruvananthapuram.
The officials said that the government was doing the necessary for setting up the campus in Malappuram district. The initial survey of 392 acres of land at Perinthalmanna has been completed. The necessary officials will be appointed at the special office at Perinthalmanna for the acquisition of land. Special appointment will be made if the necessary number of employees is not available for the purpose. The education department will open a new office in Perinthalmanna for land acquisition procedures.
Vijayakumar, principal of Thrissur Engineering College, and Ali Askar, engineer in Kannur Polytechnic, have been appointed Special Officer and Assistant Officer, respectively. MC Mohandas, district Collector, Malappuram, has been given the complete charge of supervision. A committee including ministers will look into and analyse the progress of land acquisition each month.
Education Minister MA Baby, Revenue Minister KP Rajendran, Minister of Local Self-Government Paloli Muhammed Kutty, MLA V Sasikumar, Perinthalmanna tehsildar Joy John and Special Officer Meena Kumari took part in the meeting along with the officials heading different departments and additional secretaries.
“I see this new move of the government as a good sign,” said Dr P Muhammed, Principal of Unity Women’s College in Malappuram district. “The main problem is that the land should be transferred within the stipulated time. However, the meeting of ministers shows that the government is determined in the matter. Also it will be a political loss for the Left Democratic Front if the campus is not realized even after the central government has allocated funds for it,” he added.
The central government has allocated Rs 25 crore in the budget each for the AMU regional centres in different states. Kerala is one among the five states selected by the AMU for its regional centre.
Land acquisition has become a hurdle to the possibility of AMU campus in Kerala. The land selected earlier was at Panakkad, but it could not be used. Then the government chose the land at Perinthalmanna, which is already in some legal trouble, when Muslim organisations came with strong protest against the government inaction in the matter. To add to the problems, the owners of the land have approached court against the acquisition. However, the people of Malabar hope that their dream of a national level university in the area would come true.