A proposal to establish three national universities on Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model on Wakf land will give Muslims and other minorities an edge in educational development, Minority Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said.
Welcoming the approval given by the Human Resource Development Ministry for the establishment of these universities, Khurshid, who is also Chairman of the Central Wakf Council (CWC) said, "By this we are hopeful that we would be able to give benefit to the minorities."
Citing the example of Agra-based B R Ambedkar University, Khurshid said there was no fixed quota there for admission of students belonging to Scheduled Castes because the institution is for them though students from other communities can also take admission.
"Similarly in this model, minorities will be given preference partly because under Article 46, it is intended for the benefit of educationally and econmicially minorities and partly because there is a contribution by minorities by way of land."
On whether the proposed universities will benefit all minorities, Khurshid replied in the affirmative but said since the contribution of land is being made by the CWC and Muslims, who constitute 85 per cent of the total minority population, "their percentage will be much higher".
The new universities are proposed at Ajmer (Rajasthan), Kishanganj (Bihar) and Mysore (Karnataka) with focus on better minority representation in admission.
"Out of the total seats kept for minorities, the percentage of Muslim minorities will be high because of their being educationaly and economically backdward," Khurshid said.
Chairing the 56th meeting of the CWC last evening, he said his ministry has sought approval of the Law Ministry for forming these three national universities.
Though the modalities for the proposed universities are still to be worked out, he gave indications that runnnig of these institutions may not be like that of a typical government-owned university.
He said the framework and other modalities for establishing these institutions would be worked once the approval of the Law Ministry comes.
