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Malegaon:
Surprising! Minister of Minority Department Arif Naseem Khan in a
press meet on October 27, 2010 directed the District Collectors
and Divisional Commissioners of the state to search for suitable
land to establish Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) off campus
centre in Maharashtra – a flagship project funded by the Central
Government aimed at addressing the educational need of the
backward regions. The Minister’s press statement is surprising
because the information sought from the Prant Office in Malegaon
reveal that the SDM Malegaon after consultations with the Nasik
Collector has already identified the land for the purpose.
Moreover, the
details have also been sent to the concerned departments, months
before.
According to the office bearers of Noble Education & Welfare
Society (NEWS) and Citizens for Development & Peace (CDP), the two
NGOs working to get the AMU centre established in Malegaon, Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), the world renowned Central
University founded in 1920, has decided to establish its National
centres in five states - Kerala, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, West
Bengal and Maharashtra, and requested the respective state
governments to provide suitable land for the purpose.
Consequently, the governments in Kerala and West Bengal provided
the land and work is now on to commence the academic activities
from the next month. However, Maharashtra government could not
take any decision in this regard since it doesn’t have the
required land in Pune as requested by the AMU.
“When we learnt that the government cannot provide the land in
Pune, we approached the government with the idea of getting the coveted AMU centre
established in Malegaon. With this idea in mind, we relentlessly
followed up with the state as well as the central government. In
fact, the first concrete proposal that reached the Chief
Minister’s office immediately after the Ashok Chavan Ministry was
formed in 2009 was to urge it to take decision on the matter.
Later on, numerous requests – in person and through memoranda,
were sent to the concerned offices in Mumbai and Delhi including
the office of the Maharashtra Minority Department”, they claim.
The NGOs further claim, it was only after tremendous pressure they
brought from New Delhi that the Chief Secretary in June/July 2010
sent the district collector a communiqué asking him to identify
the land in Malegaon for the purpose. Consequently, SDM
Malegaon Ajay More in his letter dated August 09, 2010 gave
details of the available land to the district collector and
requested him to proceed for further action.
“With a motive to speed-up the procedure, we ourselves sent all
the relevant documents and the copy of the letter stating the
availability of the land in Malegaon – which we obtained
through a request filed under Right to Information (RTI) Act, to
all concerned departments including the PMO. Against this
backdrop, it is surprising to note that the Minister, instead of
taking the decision in the favour of Malegaon, directs the officials
to look for land in the districts which, on one hand, do not have
suitable place for the purpose, and on the other already have
universities in their jurisdictions”, they add.
When ummid.com contacted SDM Malegaon Ajay More, he admitted
that the government has identified the land for the purpose but
declined to elaborate.
With the change in leadership at the
state level, the NGOs are now banking on Chief Minister Prithviraj
Chavan. It would be interesting to see
how and when the Chief Minister, who immediately after taking oath
of the office stressed on the need to have quality education in
the state, decides on the all-important project which is
gathering the dust in Mantralaya since 2008.
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