As one of the main mentors of Jamia Hamdard’s IAS Study Circle, which produced this year’s Civil Services topper Shah Faisal, Naseem Ahmad has long believed that the “right opportunities” can make all the difference for sections of the Muslim community which remain backward. Now, as chairman of the Haryana Wakf Board, Ahmed is overseeing one such opportunity. In the first case of its kind, the Board is setting up an engineering college in Palla village of Haryana’s Mewat district – a region with a predominantly Muslim population, with literacy rates around 20 per cent for men and below 5 per cent for women. Spread over 18 acres, Mewat Engineering College will start its first session next month with 240 students. The quota for Muslim students is 42.5 per cent seats, and applications have poured in from near and far.
In a district where such institutes are rare, villagers have welcomed the Wakf Board’s initiative with open arms. As the 13 acres the Wakf held would have proved inadequate to get the college AICTE certification (that mandates a minimum 14 acres for an engineering college), the two neighbouring villages donated six acres of land. At market price, this land would have been worth Rs 6 crore. When construction started, there were more offers of help.