Patna, Dec. 7: The Union ministry of human resource development has released Rs 136 crore for the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) campus at Kishanganj.
The funds would create infrastructure and also go towards the payment of salaries to teachers. At present, the campus is functioning from a makeshift building in Kishanganj.
This is the first fat funding that the university has received after the AMU-Kishanganj campus foundation stone was laid by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and then Union HRD minister Pallam Raju at AMU centre's land in Chakla village in the district in January 2014.
AMU examination controller Javed Akhtar confirmed the receipt of funds from the Centre. It took more than seven years for the AMU-Kishanganj centre to receive funds after the idea of setting up the AMU was floated in 2008.
The idea to set up the AMU campus in three parts of the country was formalised during the UPA govern-ment in 2008. The AMU centres were to come up at Malappuram (Kerala), Murshidabad (Bengal) and Kishanganj.
Chief minister Nitish Kumar, during a visit to Kishanganj in 2009, had announced 100 acres for the varsity campus but the AMU administration declined to accept the land citing that it was very less for a central university to set up campus.
The idea behind setting up a campus at Kishanganj was because the main centre receives a large number of applications from Bihar. Sources said AMU admits only 6,000-7,000 students in an academic session out of the over two lakh applications each year. To widen its reach, the varsity initiated the step of setting up off-campuses.
In 2010, AMU sent a proposal for land and in December 30, 2011, the state allocated 224.2 acres in Chakla for the campus.
The AMU in November 2013 commenced its first academic session with the BEd course at the minority hostel at Halim Chowk in Kishanganj. The Bihar government allocated the minority hostel at Halim Chowk in Kishanganj temporarily. The university later launched the MBA course. The students' intake in both the courses is 60 each, while the admission is done based on the AMU centralised admission process.
