For the advancement of Muslims, the UPA government had announced establishment of an off-campus of AMU at Kishanganj, one of the four districts in the north-east of Bihar

The economic and educational backwardness of the Seemanchal region has been a big talking point among political parties this election season. There are tall promises, mostly recycled rhetoric of the past, on improving the standard of education in the region with a significant concentration of Muslim population. But are the leaders really serious? Take a look at the case of Aligarh Muslim University’s off campus at Kishanganj, and you get the picture.

In 2008-09, the then UPA government had announced establishment of an off-campus of AMU at Kishanganj, one of the four districts in the north-east of Bihar, for the educational and cultural advancement of the Muslim community. This was a follow up to the Sachar Committee report on the economic, educational and social status of Muslims in the country.

Despite the approval from the President of India on the creation of the centre in October 2012 and approval of the Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) for funding to the tune of Rs 136.82 crore on 28 September 2014, nothing has moved on the ground. The UGC has not released a single penny. Forget about developing the centre as a full-fledged university as proposed, the AMU is struggling to pay its staff working here because of a shortage of funds.

The establishment of the centre was announced by the then Union Human Resource Development Minister late Arjun Singh and its foundation stone was laid by Congress President and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on 30 January 2014.

The EFC had approved the funds for establishment of three centres: Rs 104.93 crore for Malappuram in Kerala, Rs 107.80 crore for Murshidabad in West Bengal and Rs 136.82 crore for Kishanganj in Bihar. Against the said approval, the central government has released about Rs 45 crore for Malappuram and Rs 40 crore for Murshidabad centres but no money has so far been released for the Kishanganj centre. An amount of Rs 5 crore was transferred for the establishment of the AMU Centre at Kishanganj from the grant of Rs 45 crore to Malappuram Centre with the “permission of the Ministry of Human Resource Development”.

In his reminder letter dated 22 August this year, AMU Vice Chancellor Lieutenant General (retired) Zameeruddin Shah wrote to Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani drawing her attention to the critical position of funds. “I would like to highlight that the funds released so far for the centres are on the verge of exhaustion leaving a meagre amount in balance. It will be very difficult for us to run the AMU centres until and unless the funds are released for the purpose on priority basis. I wish to meet you and appraise you of the critical state of affairs in this regard,” he wrote.

The AMU Kishanganj Centre, which has B.Ed and MBA programmes as its academic offerings, is being run in two buildings provided by the Bihar government. Because of lack of funds, the centre is unable to construct its own building and shift its operation to the 224-acre land given by the state government at Chakla village of the district. Sanctioned posts of 29 teaching and 19 non-teaching staff are also lying unattended with the UGC since 7 May 2014 despite reminders sent on 23 September 2014 and 26 February 2015.

The Centre is even facing problems in running B.Ed. classes properly. “B.Ed. programme requires practice teaching by the students. Out of the two-year programme, five months shall have to be spent in teaching practice (one month in first year and four months in second year). But presently, we are able to arrange one month’s practice teachings and that too with great difficulty. Many of the schools are located quite a distance from the Centre. Sometimes, it becomes difficult to make local schools agree to practice teaching for such an extended period. Therefore, it is imperative that for running B.Ed. programme successfully, there should be a school within the campus as B.Ed. lab which is possible only when we have our own building,” Dr Rashid Nehal, director of AMU Kishanganj Centre, told Firstpost.

He says the non-release of the grant is a “serious concern” with respect to the AMU Centres. “The matter is more serious as regards to the Kishanganj Centre,” he said, urging the Ministry of HRD to intervene and ensure release of the remaining fund of Rs 131.74 crore for Kishanganj at the earliest.

Yet another reason for establishing the AMU centres was the analysis of applications received in AMU for various courses. AMU admits only 6,000-7,000 students in an academic session out of over two lakh applications each year. To widen its reach, the varsity initiated the step of setting up off-campuses. The AMU sent requests to five state governments to allow it to open its centres. While it got land in Bihar, West Bengal and Kerala, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh did not respond.

Several attempts to get the UGC’s take on the matter failed as there was no response to phone calls to the office.