By TwoCircles.net Staff Correspondent,
Kochi: The Kerala government acquired 93 acres of land in Perinthalmanna for the regional campus of the Aligarh Muslim University. The rest 30 acres to be acquired in the first phase will reportedly be acquired after the Purchase Committee fixes the value of land. The Committee is reportedly meeting on November 23 for the purpose.
The acquisition became possible as the land-owners got ready to give the land at the rate of Rs 8750, which the government had fixed. The land-owners informed their willingness in the district level Purchase Committee meeting held yesterday in the Taluk Office in Perinthalmanna. The Purchase Committee had earlier, on two occasions, held talks with the land-owners but the latter had refused to give off the land for Rs 8250, the value fixed by the government. The new agreement was reached after the officials and local people held unofficial talks with a group of land-owners. The rate of land was also raised to Rs 8750.
The government has to hand over 123 acres of land to the AMU in the first phase. In the first round of talks itself, 22 land-owners had got ready to hand over their lands to the government at the rate of Rs 8250. That land was around 10 acres. About 83 acres of land was handed over to the government yesterday after the talks. So, now the government has to acquire only 30 acres for the first phase.
The government had promised the AMU that it would hand over 123 acres of land in the first phase by October 31, but has not yet transferred the land even though two weeks have passed after the set date. The AMU VC Dr PK Abdul Azeez had expressed his fear that the state might lose the campus if the land was not transferred in the stipulated time. The AMU authorities had also reportedly sent a letter to the state Principal Secretary warning that the amount set aside for the project could not be used if the state failed to transfer the land within this month.
Kerala is one of the five states chosen by the Aligarh Muslim University to set up its regional off-campus centres. The state government has chosen around 400 acres of land at Perinthalmanna in Malappuram district for the purpose. However, the land acquisition procedures are going on even now. There were many problems in the selection of land. Earlier the Education Minister had informed the AMU and the state Assembly that land at Panakkad near Malappuram town was chosen for the campus. But it could not be used for the purpose as the Industries Department, which owned the land, refused to hand it over for the campus. Then the land at Perinthalmanna was selected. Survey of the land has been conducted and now the acquisition procedures are going on.
However, if the campus comes into existence in Malappuram, it will indeed add to the educational development of not only the district or Malabar area but the whole state.