Edu-leaders

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has assured all help to the Aligarh Muslim University's (AMU) centres at Murshidabad and Malappuram (Kerala), and those planned to come up at Bihar and Maharashtra.

"The establishment of AMU's Murshidabad centre has opened a new window of enlightenment and it is destined to realise the dreams of (AMU founder) Sir Syed Ahmad Khan," said Mukherjee while addressing a public meeting at Murshidabad to mark the completion of the centre's first 100 days.

He, however, said that there was still a lot to do.

Mukherjee urged the university authorities to set up a women's college and a women's polytechnic at Murshidabad for women's empowerment, because in his opinion, no nation or community can survive without the advancement in the status of women.

He said that the central government would lend all necessary support, including the financial assistance required. He said the government had already allocated Rs25 crore each for the AMU's Murshidabad and Malappuram centres in 2009 and Rs50 crore each in the 2011 budgets.

Further assistance would be provided for future development of these centres, he added.

Presiding over the function, AMU Vice Chancellor P.K. Abdul Azis said that the new centres, though created in West Bengal and Kerala, are not exclusively meant for a particular region. “These centres are modelled on AMU pattern and represent AMU traditions and values,” he said, adding that the centres would become autonomous universities in next 15-20 years.

Source: igovernment