Jamia staff to go on strike over minority status
By IANSTuesday, March 9, 2010
NEW DELHI - Over 2,000 professors and administrative staff of the Jamia Millia Islamia will go on strike March 15 demanding minority educational institution status for the varsity, a tag that will allow 50 percent reservation for Muslims but no quota for any other category, an official said Wednesday.
This is another effort to press the government to recognize Jamia Millia Islamia as a Muslim minority educational institution in clear terms, said N.U. Khan, president, Jamia Teachers’ Association.
Khan said if their demand is accepted then 50 percent of the university seats will be reserved for Muslims and no other reservation will come into effect.
Reserving 50 percent seats for Muslims will leave the rest 50 percent for general category. Implementation of this reservations will do away with other types of reservations for Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC), Khan added.
He said that colleges like Khalsa and St.Stephen’s also have minority status.
Under central government guidelines, all central universities must implement 27 percent OBC reservation quota. Jamia, which has central university status, is yet to initiate the process.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) has written many times that the varsity must implement the government rule or else it may face monetary sanctions.
The university, established in 1920 by an act of parliament, currently has around 19,000 students.
