Two central varsities to come up in J&K: GoM

Maintaining that two central universities would be set up in Jammu and Kashmir — one in Jammu and another in Kashmir — the state government has decided to lay the foundation stone of the first university in the Jammu region.

“The state government has taken up with the Centre that there should be two central universities in J&K and they assured that two universities will be set up in the state — one in Jammu and the other in Kashmir,” political advisor to the chief minister, Divender Rana,told reporters here, adding the Group of Ministers had pleaded with Centre to open two universities in the state — one each in Srinagar and Jammu.

In its first regime, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had announced it would set up one central university each in 15 states, including J&K. Rana’s announcement, made after the group of ministers’ meeting with people in Jammu, is likely to diffuse tension in the Hindu-majority Jammu, where political parties including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), students and bar association had joined hands for launching an agitation on the issue.

Earlier, the issue of setting up a central university was almost threatening to disrupt fragile peace in the border state. However, the initial ‘favour’ to the Hindu-dominated Jammu is likely to provoke reaction in the Muslim-majority Kashmir region where columnists and intelligentsia had been highlighting the issue as an “anti-Kashmir” move.

Last year, the issue of land transfer for the Amarnath shrine board in Kashmir had set off agitations in the two volatile regions.

As soon as recruitment drive for the proposed university was started from the camp offices in Srinagar and Jammu last week, a worried chief minister Omar Abdullah rushed to Delhi to convey that a fresh trouble could erupt over this any time. Omar accompanied by his father Farooq Abdullah, union minister for new and renewable energy resources, Saifudin Soz, state Congress chief, ministers and MPs carefully chosen to represent both the regions, met prime minister Manmohan Singh on this issue on Monday.

The J&K leaders pleaded with Singh that trouble-monger in both the regions were out to stoke sentiments on this issue. Omar’s suggestion to the prime minister was that let the centre announce two central universities in the state - one each for Jammu and Srinagar regions. Alternatively, he proposed that the university have campuses in both the regions.