Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani speaks of closing down the Aligarh Muslim University off-campus

Updated on: Tuesday, March 01, 2016

hrd Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani has threatened to close down the Aligarh Muslim University off-campus centres in a conversation held with a delegation of Kerala ministers and MPs, along with Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. The meeting was held in Irani's office in Delhi seeking her support for the AMU centre in Malappuram district, which is not progressing as planned.

According to newspaper reports, she told them that the centre and other AMU centres were established without any legal sanction, due to which they all have to be closed down. After the Kerala CM told her that they have allocated 345 acres of precious land in Perinthalmanna taluk of Malappuram for this purpose on the understanding that a full-fledged AMU centre will function there, she asked him to take it back.

She asked how a centre can be started like that and what authority the VC had to take such an action. She refused to provide any monetary help for the same and said that was no need for the AMU centres.

In between, the AMU Vice Chancellor Lt. Gen (retd) Zameeruddin Shah entered the room. Irani asked him bluntly the purpose of his arrival, to which, he politely replied that he had come at the invitation of the Kerala Chief Minister. Irani asked him if it was the Kerala CM or the HRD Ministry who paid him his salary and ordered him to go back to his room. She also bluntly refused to allow an AMU school to function at the centre.

AMU had decided in 2010 to open five off-campus centres, one each at Murshidabad, Malappuram, Kishanganj, Bhopal and Pune, which were all supposed to be fully functional by 2020. Out of these, only the first three are partially functioning, but without any school. AMU's academic and executive councils approved this scheme, which was finally given consent in May 2010 by the President of India who is the visitor of the university.

Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani speaks of closing down the Aligarh Muslim University off-campus

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