In the wake of deaths among Aligarh Muslim University teachers and staffers due to COVID-19 and COVID-like symptoms, Lok Sabha MP Kunwar Danish Ali on Wednesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to send a central team to the varsity to help fight the "virus variant" there.
In a letter to Modi, the Bahujan Samaj Party leader said the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) is facing the most challenging time in a century due to the "dangerous explosion of a new variant" of COVID-19 that has devastated the campus.
"Apart from being a Member of Parliament, I am also a Member of AMU Court, and a lot of AMU alumni from all over the country and abroad, are expressing their concern and urging to save this great educational institution which recently completed 100 years of its existence and you yourself addressed the centenary celebrations as a chief guest, in December, last year," Ali said in his letter to Modi.
AMU needs an immediate visit by a central team from the Ministry of Health and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to assess the situation on the spot and take action without any further delay, he said.
"AMU's Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College is not fully equipped to handle such a challenging situation due to shortage of medical equipment and other facilities," Ali said.
"I, therefore, humbly request you to immediately send the central team to the AMU campus and provide medical assistance or allocate sufficient funds to Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College to fight the new COVID variant and save precious lives in the campus and surrounding areas," he said.
Alarmed by deaths in recent days among AMU teachers due to COVID-19 and COVID-like symptoms, Vice-Chancellor Tariq Mansoor had written to the ICMR on Sunday, urging it to study if a particular coronavirus variant is circulating around the university campus. At least 35 serving and retired AMU faculty members have died from coronavirus and coronavirus-like symptoms so far.
