Summary:
Agra: The proposal to introduce a five-day week at Aligarh Muslim University ( AMU ) has been scrapped, even though almost 50 percent of the faculty members were in favour of the move.Interestingly, some sources claimed that the proposal was rejected by vice chancellor Tariq Mansoor on the grounds that it could dilute the “minority” character of the institution. Had the weekend offs been implemented at the university, the half day holiday for Jummah (Friday’s Namaz) would have been scrapped. AMU, of late, has been mired in controversy over it’s minority status and whether or not it should give reservation to SC/ ST students like all other central universities. The sources claimed that the VC had unilaterally taken the decision, without placing the proposal before the academic council.However, a spokesperson of the university, Shafey Kidwai, denied that the rejection of this proposal was in any way connected to the minority character of the university. He said that the VC had turned down the proposal as he thought it was not “feasible” and that doctors’ OPDs would suffer if such a pattern was implemented.The proposal to have a five-day week for all academic and non-academic staff at the university was mooted last year by VC Mansoor, but he had not taken it forward for some reason..