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Patna, April 9: After a prolonged tussle with Union human resource development minister Kapil Sibal over the location of Central University of Bihar (CUB), chief minister Nitish Kumar appears to have thrown in the towel.
“I have not changed my stand on CUB being located in Motihari. But it is for the Centre to take the decision,” Nitish said on Monday.
He added that it was the Centre that had asked for an option on the location of the varsity. “Had they not asked for an option, we would not have given the choice of Motihari,” he said.
The chief minister accused the Centre of playing divertive politics over the location of CUB and creating disturbances in Gaya and Motihari. “The Centre kept changing its stand even after it approved the site in Motihari,” Nitish said.
The Union government had initially agreed to Motihari and then urged the chief minister to accept Bihta in Patna district as the proposed location. After facing resistance from Nitish, Sibal in February this year announced Gaya as the location of CUB and said a defence land was available for the same. Sibal had cited inaccessibility as the reason for rejecting Motihari and said Gaya has an international airport.
However, CUB is not the only university causing problems for the state. The state government has handed over 243 acres in Kishanganj to open an extension centre of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). “The state government has done everything possible for opening the AMU extension centre. Earlier, there was an objection initially that the land allotted was in three separate parts. We have given a single chunk of land there. The onus now falls on the Centre,” he said.
The chief minister added that he hoped that work for the AMU branch would start when he visits Kishanganj during his Seva Yatra later this month.
Nitish said he would raise the issue in a “major way” if the Centre failed to begin construction.
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