New Delhi: Disappointed by "unnecessary
delay" in providing required land for an AMU campus in Bihar,
activists from Kishanganj in the state will hold simultaneous
demonstrations on October 12 in the capital and their home
district to press Nitish Kumar government to expedite the
matter.
The initiative to start five regional off-campus centres
was aimed at making the University accessible to educationally
backward regions and the AMU administration had identified
Kishanganj as the ideal place for a subsidiary centre.
However, while similar moves in Malappuram in Kerala and
in Murshidabad district of West Bengal have kicked off, the
Bihar centre has been delayed.
AMU Vice Chancellor PK Abdul Azis says the University
requires 250 acres of land at a single stretch to start the
campus, but the Bihar government was providing three separate
pieces of land that would not serve its purpose.
The administration also claims that a part of the land
being allotted is under encroachment by the tribals.
The announcement of a University campus had come as a
piece of good news to many in the educationally-backward area
of Kishanganj but the people are now agitated as its fate
hangs in the balance.
A group of activists under the banner of AMU Centre
Coordination Committee will hold an agitation in front of
Bihar Bhawan in Delhi on Wednesday, and similar protests will
be staged in Kishanganj to demand that the Nitish Kumar
government resolves the issue and get the centre going.
"On September 12, MLAs and MPs from Kishanganj and
adjoining areas gave a memorandum to the Bihar government
asking them to resolve the issue in 30 days, failing which
agitation will be launched in the area," said Kaifee Anwar, a
and member of the committee in Delhi.
"We are not blaming anyone, but it is the government's
job to resolve any issue and we want them to do it on priority
basis as this is important for the region with a population of
almost one crore," said the marketing professional from Bihar.
The activists are worried that politics over the issue
and the "unnecessary delay" would harm the peoples' interests.
PTI
First Published: Monday, October 10, 2011, 18:52