AMU drops guest house construction proposal: VC

Aligarh, Nov 12: The proposal to lease out Aligarh Muslim University land to a Mumbai based builder for a a guest house has been dropped, Vice Chancellor Lt General (Retd) Zameer-ud-Din Shah said.

In an open letter to the AMU community yesterday, Shah has sought to remove misgivings on the issue and some other issues also. Faced by widespread protests both by students, teachers and some other organisations, the builder, an alumnus of the institution had chosen to voluntarily withdraw from the project, which was based on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis on a 25-year lease, the VC said.

Shah explained that the proposal for leasing out university land had been prompted by the fact that the institution was woefully short of good guest houses and the varsity was expecting hundreds of guests during the centenary celebrations in 2017.

The proposal envisaged that out of 100 rooms, 10 would be reserved for the university.

Regarding the move for his being a life trustee of the Sir Syed Foundation, which plans to establish schools in all districts of Uttar Pradesh, Shah said that if community leaders and the executive council in its next meeting decides to nominate someone else he would be more than happy to be replaced by someone else.

In his letter Shah points out that the Minority Affairs Ministry was ready to give Rs 10 crore per annum for building schools. However, if detractors continue to stymie his efforts then this proposal could well be derailed.

He said it was now up to the members of the Muslim community to decide whether they wish to be establish such schools or not. Striking an emotional chord he said, "I have come to AMU to repay a debt which my family owes this institution and not to establish a zaamidaari for my children as alleged by detractors."

PTI