AMU defers discussion on guest house construction proposal

The Aligarh Muslim University today said the proposal for construction of a guest house by a builder, scheduled to be discussed at the next meeting of the Executive Council on November 7 has been deferred.
The proposal to hand over a piece of the university's land to a Mumbai based builder for construction of a guest house on build-operate-transfer basis (BOT) basis has stirred a controversy.
Some students had threatened to launch an agitation from Friday if the varsity failed to revoke its decision.
Aligarh Muslim University Teachers' Association (AMUTA) had also expressed serious reservations over the recent proposal.
In a resolution passed yesterday, the AMUTA described the proposed move as shocking, with its Secretary Mustafa Zaidi saying, "The teachers will go to any extent to stop this proposed agreement between a private party and the AMU."

Zaidi said that a proposal has been mooted to hand over about 10,000 square meters of prime land in front of Mohd Habib Hall to a Mumbai based builder.

He said that instead of seeking a BOT agreement with the private builder the university should make an appeal to prominent alumni for generous endowments for construction of the guest house.
The university in its statement said that the allegations regarding the above proposal were baseless.
The idea of construction of the guest house was based on the fact that the university lacks quality guest rooms to accommodate its visitors and it also does not have adequate funds to construct it, the spokesperson said.

Moreover, UGC was short of funds for such development works and in fact it has appreciated our initiative in taking the assistance of private sector for such ventures, he said.
The spokesperson further clarified that the proposed BOT agreement would only be cleared after it has been discussed threadbare in the university's Executive Council.