Nod to 2 Central varsities in Bihar

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German ambassador-designate Michael Steiner

Within days of the Janata Dal (United) supporting the United Progressive Alliance’s official presidential candidate, the government on Friday showed more signs of growing closeness with the Nitish Kumar government by offering to establish two Central universities in the state.
After months of bickering between the human resources development ministry and Bihar government, the controversy over the establishment of a Central university has been resolved, and the two Central universities will come up at Motihari (demanded by the Nitish government) and Gaya (proposed by HRD ministry).
“I have given the approval for establishment of one Central university in Motihari and one in Gaya. The issue has now finally been resolved,” HRD minister Kapil Sibal said.
The controversy and impasse over the choice of site for setting up a Central university in Bihar had continued for the past several months as Mr Sibal had repeatedly and outrightly rejected the state governments demand to establish the university at Motihari.
Mr Sibal had even written a letter to Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar in March (as reported by this newspaper first) and reiterated that the Centre proposed to set up a campus for the Central university in Gaya. The stalemate continued and the Bihar Assembly even passed a resolution to demand the university in Motihari, leading to a slugfest that continued for months.
After the decision to establish two Central universities in Bihar, the Central Universities Act, 2009, is now expected to be amended soon. There is a need for an amendment in the act as it only had a provision for setting two Central universities in Jammu and Kashmir as a special case and provided for one university each in states which were devoid of Central universities.
It is understood that a provision of `240 crores has been made for the two Central universities and that there would be no additional allocation.
The campus in Motihari has been proposed adjacent to an upcoming national highway, the completion of which would reduce the travel time to and fro Patna by two-and-a-half hours. The Gaya Central university has been proposed on defence land in the district. A provision of 300 acres of land has been made for each of these universities.