New Delhi: On Wednesday i.e. March 11, 2010, according to the announcement made by an official,over 2,000 professors and administrative staff of the Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) University will go on strike on March 15. The faculty declared the strike demanding Muslim minority educational institution status for the University, a tag that will allow 50 % reservation for Muslims, but no quota for any other category.
N.U. Khan, President, Jamia Teachers' Association in his statement, has clearly mentioned that this is another effort to press the government to recognize JMI as a Muslim minority educational institution in clear terms. He said that if their demand is accepted, then 50 % of the university seats will be reserved for Muslims and no other reservation will come into effect. Reserving 50 % seats for Muslims will leave the rest 50 % for general category. Implementation of this reservation will do away with other types of reservations for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs). Mr Khan added that colleges like Khalsa and St.Stephen's also have minority status.
As per sources, under central government guidelines, all central universities must implement 27 percent OBC reservation quota. Jamia, which has central university status, is yet to begin the procedure. Moreover, University Grants Commission (UGC) has written many times that it must implement the government rule or else it may face monetary sanctions. JMI came into existence in 1920 by an act of the Parliament. Presently, the university has around 19,000 students.
