Security stepped up on AMU campus ahead of meeting to finalise names for VC post

ALIGARH : Security arrangements have been stepped up on the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) campus ahead of its governing body meeting to finalise three names from which the next vice-chancellor will be selected, a senior official said. The meeting of the AMU Court will be held on Monday amid controversy over the possibility that it could be chaired by acting Vice-Chancellor Professor Mohammad Gulrez. His wife Prof Naima Khatoon is one of the five candidates from which the AMU Court will choose three probables to be forwarded to the President of India for selecting the VC.

Some members of the executive council had objected to Gulrez presiding over last week's executive council meeting which picked Naima Khatoon among five candidates shortlisted for the VC's post. The objections were, however, dismissed. University spokesperson Omar Peerzada had said, "The officiating vice-chancellor was not a candidate for vice chancellorship and can chair the meeting and there is no question of conflict of interest, as in the eyes of law, husband and wife are legally independent." "Both the Department of Higher Education and the AMU ordinance (Executive) do not bar the spouse of a VC from participating in the voting process," he had added.

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According to university officials, the AMU Court has 193 seats of which 78 are vacant as elections for these posts have not been held in several years. Meanwhile, Rehan Husain, an undergraduate student, was shot at on Friday night while he was on his way to the dining hall of his hostel Sir Syed Hall (North). He was rushed to the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College Hospital. Doctors said that his condition was stable and out of danger.

The student told reporters that he was the victim of a stray bullet, when some youths, most of them outsiders, were firing shots in the air. The firing happened during celebrations after an outsider was released from jail, a university source said. When contacted, AMU Proctor Professor Wasim Ali told PTI that 10 people had been named in the FIR filed on Saturday and eight of these were not AMU students. He said two rooms of the hostel have been sealed.

When asked how such a large number of outsiders happened to be inside a university hostel at such a late hour, Ali said, "We have also launched a campaign to identify and expel all unauthorised occupants in some hostels, where such elements may have infiltrated." He confirmed that last month, two youths were injured in a shooting incident in the same hostel. Following a report to the police by the university authorities, one room was sealed. The University has been rocked by protests by more than 2,500 non-teaching temporary employees who have not received their wages for more than two months. On Saturday, hundreds of protesters marched to the compound of the vice-chancellor's office and threatened to intensify the stir if their salaries were not released before the Diwali holidays.