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| Sibal tells team Omar: Two varsities in J&K not possible for now | | Central University may be ‘spread’ over three regions | | Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Aug 3: Even after Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, today assured Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, that the Centre would consider the state’s demand of establishing two Central Universities, one each in Kashmir and Jammu, “passionately”, Union Minister for Human Resources Development, Kapil Sibal, is understood to have made it clear that setting up two separate universities in the state would not be possible at the moment. National Conference-led coalition government has, consequently, begun to find a way out to the fast brewing crisis by assessing the possibility of establishing the university’s campuses both in Srinagar and Jammu, with a Buddhist Studies Centre at Leh.
Informed sources in New Delhi revealed to Early Times that both, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi as well Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, assured “all possible support” to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and his team---that included the coalition bigwigs like Dr Farooq Abdullah, Prof Saifuddin Soz and eight of the CM’s Ministerial colleagues---in two separate meetings. Leaders of both the parties castigated the opposition PDP for being “irresponsible and jingoistic” and alleged that it was leaving no stone unturned in building up and accentuating an atmosphere of “instability” in the border state.
Sources said that Prime Minister assured his full support to Chief Minister in realizing the state’s demand of establishing two Central Universities, one each in Kashmir and Jammu. He is understood to have told Chief Minister that he would discuss the issue of unrest in both the regions with Minister of Human Resources Development and explore the possibility of resolving the present crisis with a realistic solution.
However, later in the evening, Mr Kapil Sibal is said to have made it clear to J&K Chief Minister that establishing two separate Central Universities in the state would not be possible for the Centre for now. According to sources, Mr Sibal pointed out that in its last year of the previous term, the UPA Government had approved 15 Central Universities for equal number of the states. It was due to sustained efforts of then Chen Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad that J&K got one of such universities.
Sources said that Mr Sibal was not personally satisfied with the mechanism adopted by his predecessor, Arjun Singh, for setting up the 15 Central Universities as also appointment of the Vice Chancellors which had come on the eve of announcement of Lok Sabha elections in February this year and generated a controversy. Arjun Singh’s daughter, Maya Singh, has been widely accused of having influenced the process of the appointment of VCs for the 15 upcoming universities. Those favoured by Arjun Singh and allegedly his daughter included former Chancellor of the University of Kashmir, Prof Wahid Qureshi, who was appointed as the first Chancellor for the “J&K Central University” for a term of five years.
Sources revealed that Government of India was assessing the possibility of setting up one of the three Universities, funded by Maulana Azad Foundation, through Ministry of Minority Affairs, in Srinagar in case the Central University was set up in Jammu.
As the Central University stands titled as “J&K Central University”, sources said that senior Government functionaries had now begun to consider the proposal of having two of its campuses, one each in Srinagar and Jammu. High profile academics have also proposed that the Central University should also establish International Buddhist Studies Center at Leh in Ladakh region. According to these sources, Indian Institute of Management had been sanctioned for Srinagar and there was no dispute with regard to its location.
Presently, there are seven Universities in Jammu & Kashmir---three in Kashmir and four in Jammu regions. Erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir University was split into University of Kashmir and University of Jammu in 1970s. With regional campuses in Srinagar and Jammu, Jammu & Kashmir Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agriculture Sciences and Technology (SKUAST) was similarly split into SKUAST-K and SKUAST-J in 1994 In addition to these four state-controlled universities, fully funded by the Government, J&K has three more universities funded by religious bodies. While Mata Veshnudevi Ji University in Jammu is funded by a Hindu religious trust, Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University at Rajouri in Jammu and Islamia University of Science & Technology, Awantipore (Kashmir), are funded by Muslim religious trusts, with the latter one enjoying some seed of government funding.
Prof Mushtaq Sidiquee, who is functioning as Head of Immunology Department at Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) Soura and some Muslim officers of Kashmir Administrative Service (KAS) are trying to set up yet another Islamic University in Srinagar. Even as they had succeeded in securing allotment of nearly 100 Kanal of land for it in Srinagar outskirts in Ghulam Nabi Azad’s regime two years ago, sources said that the process has been stalled as some Central agencies are understood to have pointed out that proposed source of the funding for this university in Saudi Arabia was “dubious” for its links to some radical groups spreading communal disharmony in Pakistan.
Even as a private member’s Bill for establishing this university was opposed by most of the MLAs in Assembly’s February session in Jammu and thus failed, sources said that Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs, Ali Mohammad Sagar, was planning to bring a Bill for the same purpose on behalf of the coalition government in the current session of the Assembly.
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