By Mohd Mudassir Alam
Perhaps no other project especially focused towards education and future of millions of deprived people has witnessed such uncertainty in the country. Since its announcement made in 2009-10, the proposal of setting up a special centre (campus) of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in Kishanganj is biting dust due to insincere approaches of its concerned stake-holders namely the Govt of Bihar and the Govt at the centre. The tag of AMU, India’s biggest Muslim concentrated central university, the agitations by various groups and filing of cases in Allahabad High Court, Patna High Court and Supreme Court altogether had unnecessarily made the way for AMU Kishanganj tough and controversial.
AMU Kishangaj: a piece of land.
After overcoming a series of controversies and court formalities, the proposal of AMU Kishanganj got green signal from the President of India last November. Still the proposed centre need token grant from Union Ministry of Finance to develop the infrastructure on the 224.02 acres land given free of cost by Govt of Bihar.
As per the process followed by AMU administration to establish the special centre and start the session in a temporary shelter it requires at least Rs. 25 crore for one financial year. Hence all eyes are fixed on Union Financial Budget 2013-14 which is all set to be presented by P. Chidambaram Union Minister of Finance by next week.
Maulana Asrarul Haque, the Member of Parliament (MP) from Kishanganj in his recent addresses to public gathering at various places in the district had declared that the name of AMU Kishanganj is featuring in the Union Budget. The AMU Kishanganj related statement of MP Kishanganj has raised fresh hope among common people of the district.
With every passing day the anxiety towards the inclusion of AMU Kishanganj in this budget has increased many folds among thousands of AMU Kishanganj wishers and education lovers. Mohammad Mudassir Alam, an AMU alumni is worried about the Kishanganj centre as it missed to get featured for past two financial years. He said, “I am worried for AMU Kishanganj establishment and eyeing the token budget from Ministry of Finance this time. The future and establishment of the campus in Kishanganj is fully dependant on Union budget.”
When enquired with Nodal office for AMU centres, Prof Javed Akhter, Officer on Special Duty (OSD) shared the current status about AMU Kishanganj. Prof Akhter said, the Registrar of AMU Shahrukh Shamshad has already written to the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) to provide a token grant of Rs. 50 crores from the savings of the XI plan to start the process of establishing the Centre with a plan to commence classes in December 2012.
However, the concerned official at MHRD said that without the submission of Detailed Project Report (DPR) and Detailed Feasibility Report (DFR) by AMU the ministry can’t release the token grant demanded by the University for Kishanganj. The authentic source from Nodal office of AMU centres shared another technical difficulty with the preparation of DPR and DFR. The university as per guidelines of MHRD needs to get the DPR and DFR prepared from a government recognised agency. The cost of DPR and DFR quoted by the govt agency is very high, which can’t be bore by the university as there is no fund given by the government till date especially for Kishanganj centre. University can go ahead with DPR and DFR formalities only if the token grant of Rs. 50 crore is given by the Ministry of Finance.
The technicalities and complexities related to AMU Kishanganj are not encouraging for millions of people residing in the area, which is also referred as Seemanchal. If AMU Kishanganj misses this time in union budget, the things are going to be very tough as we are not sure how Govt of Bihar is going to react. At the same time it will encourage the anti-social elements and groups opposing the proposal of AMU Kishanganj time-and-again by various ways including illegal encroachment of land and violation of law and order on the site.
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Md. Mudassir Alam is from Kishanganj.