By Shaik Zakeer Hussain, TwoCircles.net,
Bangalore: Recently, while inaugurating the upcoming satellite campus of Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, said that the setup would open new doors to technical education and “would provide greater opportunity to students to access higher education in Urdu medium in the state.”
But just as students in J&K were jubilant at the new announcement, the future of hundreds of students and student aspirants down south, in the Bangalore campus of MANUU looks bleak.
The autonomous University has withdrawn courses in its Bangalore polytechnic College in Civil Engineering, Electronics & Communication Engineering and Computer Science, citing non-allotment of AICTE approval to the institute, sealing the future of mostly poor Muslim students.
“It is because of the inefficient and lackadaisical approach of the management, especially the Vice-Chancellor that the centre is in this situation,” says an assistant teacher speaking to TCN on condition of anonymity, revealing the gross negligence of the University authorities in not pursuing to get AICTE approval for the institution.
Established in 2009, with the intake of 40 students in each branch, the Polytechnic College had two batches pass out successfully with many of the students getting employed in companies across country. However, this academic year the University has withheld the admission for the new batches leaving the fate of many students' fate hang in balance.
Surprisingly, MANUU has withdrawn all technical courses not only in Bangalore but also in Darbhanga, Bihar.
When anxious teachers and students approached the Principal, he said the anonymous source, replied that he does not has any authority over the matter, as the decision to withdraw courses came from the University Head Office in Hyderabad.
Dejected, the teachers sent letters to Vice-President Hamid Ansari, Dr. Manmohan Singh, Qamr-ul-Islam, Minister for Urban Development, Minorities Welfare, Haj and Wakf, Karnataka and to K. Rehman Khan, Minister for Minority Affairs, but their desperate pleas have fallen to deaf ears.
“MANUU is the only university offering technical courses in mother tongue to students, no other college or institute offers these courses in any regional language, except in English, so it is sad that these courses are withdrawn,” said Tousif Madikeri, State President, Students Islamic Organisation of India (SIO). “The problem the Polytechnic branch has is lack of infrastructure; proper facilities, we urge the government to provide proper facilities at the institute, as MANUU was a government led initiative,” he added.