New Delhi: The first off-campus of
Aligarh Muslim University is set to become a realty soon with
HRD Minister Kapil Sibal slated to lay the foundation stone
of the centre at Murshidabad in West Bengal on November 20.
President Pratibha Patil, in her capacity as the
Visitor of the Varsity, had recently given consent for the
establishment of two such campuses, the other one being at
Malapurram in Kerala.
Sources said the function in Murshidabad is also
likely to be attended by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya. The former
had taken a key interest in early establishment of the
Murshidabad campus.
The Ministry of Human Resource Development has
released Rs 25 crore and Rs 10 crore for the West Bengal and
Kerala centres respectively to meet preliminary costs.
AMU Vice Chancellor Prof P K Abdul Azis had said that
by 2020, these would become full-fledged campuses with
potential to become independent universities.
The setting up of the campuses is expected to give a
boost to the two regions which are considered educationally
backward.
The state governments have responded enthusiastically
to the campuses. West Bengal Government has provided about 250
acre of land in the Farakka barrage region in Murshidabad
district.
The varsity has also decided to set up similar centres
in Pune, Bhopal and Kishanganj in Bihar. However, they will
come up later.
Programmes like LLB and MBA would be offered by the
off-campuses.
PTI
