State-run Ismail Yusuf College in Jogeshwari, which recently opposed the temporary allotment of a two-storey building on its premises for the National Law University (NLU), may soon have to acquiesce more colleges on its campus.
What's on the anvil?
The government now plans to develop the 65-acre campus into an educational hub for eastern suburbs, allowing setting up of at least four institutes on the premises — engineering, pharmacy, architecture and hotel management colleges — along with the NLU.
The campus will also house a Marathi Bhasha Bhavan, and an auditorium having capacity to seat a 1,000 is also being considered.
A hostel for 320 girl students too is on the cards, it would be built by the public works department.
By when does govt want colleges' plan to get moving?
The department has directed the University of Mumbai and Directorate of Technical Education to send proposals for setting up four professional colleges “within a month”. A five-member committee has been formed to finalise the proposals at the earliest.
And what about the national law university?
The higher and technical education department is already mulling over allocating 15 acres to the NLU. Department's principal secretary Dr Sanjay Chahande told dna, “A proposal in this regard is under consideration. A final call may take some time.”
What's been planned to counter NLU on campus?
Politicians and members of the minority community will hold a press conference on Ismail Yusuf College on Monday. To stop the NLU from coming up on the premises of the Jogeshwari college, Congress member Yusuf Abrahani and some community members plan to take "forcible possession" of the college, and the press conference will be held to "announce the date of forcible possession".
Unhappy with state's plan for the Jogeshwari college
Zahir Kazi, president of Anjuman-i-Islam, which runs hundreds of schools across the country, who too was hoping to get possession of Ismail Yusuf College for the past few years, expressed his unhappiness over the unfolding of events.
“The community's hope that the government would allocate this college to a minority institution like us has been shattered now. There is a stay by the Bombay High Court that the government can’t entertain any third party interest until the petition is finalised. We are shocked that it's going ahead without even bothering about contempt of court,” said Kazi.
“The donor had given this land for welfare of minorities. As per the agreement between the donor and the then government, this college must serve purpose of Muslim community. The community is still so backward socio-economically, but the BJP government perhaps doesn’t want to uplift Muslims.”
What does the edu dept say?
Chahande, however, said, “Ismail Yusuf College is government property and, hence, state is free to utilise it for the larger benefit of society. Setting up a law university on the campus will benefit youths of all communities. We have constituted a committee to look into the legal aspect.”
Ismail Yusuf is the fourth oldest college of Mumbai, it started functioning in 1930. Sir Ismail Yusuf, a noted philanthropist, in 1914 had given Rs8 lakh to the then governor of Bombay for establishing a higher educational institution for Muslims. The then government bought the plot and set up the college. A mosque was also built and a corpus for scholarships was created.
Though it was established as Government Arts College for Muslims, over the years it grew into a full-fledged arts, science and commerce college. After independence, it was open for all communities, with 20% seats reserved for Muslims at entry level.
Originally, the campus was spread over 120 acres, but today, it has shrunk to about 54 acres due to encroachment, construction of Western Express Highway bisecting the land under college control and the grant of land by the government to private societies, a move which was opposed by Muslim organisations and has led to litigation.
