AMU’s Kerala centre restricts use of mobiles on campus

ALIGARH: Aligarh Muslim University centre at Malappuram, Kerala, has imposed restrictions on use of mobiles by students on campus. They cannot carry the mobile phones to the administrative and academic block of the campus but can use their phones in the hostel, canteen or anywhere else.
Dr Zakariya KA, director at the Malappuram Centre, AMU, said, “We have not banned the mobile phones, we have just restricted the use of mobiles on campus. The academic and administrative blocks are for a purpose and it is to make sure students concentrate on studies in class and keep the sanctity of the busy administrative block.We issued the notice two days ago because student play games and are constantly communicating through different portals. The step is only to maintain the decorum of classrooms.”
He further said, “There are other institutions too in Kerala that restrict the use of mobiles and it is not a step to curtail their freedom of communication, as it is being thought to be. To make sure that students follow this we have also said in the notice that defaulters will be punished.”
Though the students are not very upbeat about the new rule, for them it means a constant trip back home or to hostel to check the latest WhatsApp message, Facebook update, phone call from home or a friend. “This is so mindless; we could have been asked to keep our phones on silent mode. There are times when we need to check a something on net, or look for a meaning in the online dictionary but the administration doesn’t understand that, today we use phones for more info and it helped us in class,” said a student.
A non-resident student said, “As a student we all have to go to the class or to the administrative block of the university. So if I carry my phone, I have to keep it at some place before entering these two domains. Isn’t this an additional responsibility looking for a place to keep my phone? To avoid any such hassle I will end up not carrying my phone.”
The hostelers will keep going back to their rooms, “The distance between the classrooms and hostels is not much so there shouldn’t be a problem in making frequent trips to the rooms,” said Zakariya.
“Our class timing is from 8:00am to 4:00 pm that means I will be without phone for most part of the day, in this day and age can we afford that?” said a student.