Government urged to allow Muslim organisations to run college

Agitated over media reports that the Maharashtra government plans to set up a National Law University in the 65-acre campus of Ismail Yusuf College in suburban Jogeshwari, several NGOs demanded here today that the college be handed over to Muslim educational organisations.
The administration of the college should be handed over to Muslim organisations, former MLA and ex-MHADA Chairman Yusuf Abrahani who also happens to be a founder of Social Education and Welfare Association (SEVA) said at a press conference here.
He said that the sprawling land of the Ismail Yusuf College, which is now being run by the government, was donated by a Muslim philanthropist Sir Mohammed Yusuf Ismail way back in 1930 for education of Muslim youth.

As such, the land belongs to the Muslim community and hence they should be given the responsibility to run the institution, he said.
Reacting to the proposed move by the government to set up a National Law University here, the NGOs said that it is the Muslim community and not the government which should decide which institution should come up on the vacant land in the premises.
"For the last 65 years, Muslims of Maharashtra have been demanding that this college and its land be returned to their community. On similar lines, the Dalits got the Indu Mill land which was originally a central government plot, for the Babasaheb Ambedkar Memorial," Abrahani said.

As a first step to fulfil their demand, the government should allot 25 acres of vacant land in the Ismail Yusuf College to Muslim educational organisations, he said.
The remaining land allotted to government offices, sports complexes and Marathi school should be given to Muslim organisations, Abrahani said.