AMU to set up campus in Murshidabad

Updated on: Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Kolkata: Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjees dreams have finally come true. And, so has finance minister Pranab Mukherjee's .

The former had been lobbying with the Centre for an AMU campus in West Bengal since 2005. The latter wanted to gift his voters mostly from the minority community with a university par excellence.

The finance minister on Monday sanctioned Rs 25 crore (in the first phase) for the Rs 400-crore Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) campus in Suti block within his Jangipur constituency in Murshidabad. The news was welcomed by all the whos who involved in the project.

We just hope the poor students, who constitute a large section of the minority population, can have access to the university at concessions, said Nisar Waris, president of the AMU Old Boys Association , Kolkata chapter.
His organisation will soon do a recce around the state to make a list of such students. We also want to ensure that like other AMUs, this one, too, caters to all communities. The first AMU graduate was a Hindu . The campuses are a picture of communal harmony, said Waris, who did his postgraduation from AMU in 1967.

There should be more such projects in our state, where minority education has been neglected right through. The government should ensure that madarsas are allocated sufficient funds to bring them on a par with institutions of modern education, said A A Shirazi, member of the Minority Commission.

The AMU campus in Suti will include subjects like biotechnology, mass education , telecommunications and electronics engineering. The state government has identified 355 acres belonging to the Union water resource development for the project. This land will be handed over to the Union human resource development ministry, which, in turn, will give it to AMU.

AMU vice-chancellor P K Abdul Azis has written to the chief minister that the cost of the campus would be Rs 400 crore and funds will be sanctioned during the 11th Five Year Plan. The entire fund will come in phases, said Javed Akhtar, managing director of the West Bengal Minority Development Finance Corporation.

Once the campus comes up, students from all communities will benefit, said Nizam Shamim, chairman of the Wakf Board.

AMU to set up campus in Murshidabad

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