Hyderabad sets aside 500 acres for first govt university

The commissioner also allotted another plot spread over 10 acres in the same Kohsar area for a medical college.

HYDERABAD:

The district administration of Hyderabad has allotted 500 acres for the first ever public sector university in the city.

On Saturday, Hyderabad Commissioner Ahmed Baksh Narejo ordered the Hyderabad Development Authority to prepare a plan and have it approved within 15 days. About Rs80 million has been sanctioned to be spent on the plot during the ongoing financial year.

The commissioner also allotted another plot spread over 10 acres in the same Kohsar area of Latifabad for a medical college. There is still a lot of work to be done as the medical college does not yet have a principal and advertisements have to be placed for the construction and broadening of the road from Latifabad Unit 12 while leads to Kohsar. Hyderabad’s students mostly go to three universities in Jamshoro district as the city has no public sector university. It does have several private colleges and a private university.

Students have long demanded a university in Hyderabad, as many of them are rejected by the three Jamshoro universities which offer enrollment on the basis of a quota. The officials at the meeting with the commission considered starting classes in a temporary building but deferred taking a decision till the next sitting Sindhi nationalists have been sceptical of the idea of the university. They argued that the university is being set up in an area dominated by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and voiced fears that Sindhis would not be given enough admissions.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 25^th, 2012.