Academics address the seminar at Chanakya Hotel in Patna on Friday. Picture by Ashok Sinha

Patna, March 11: Development should not be exclusive, its benefits should reach all sections of society, said Mohammed Nihal, the vice-chancellor of Central University, Bihar, today.

He was speaking at a meet organised by the university at a city hotel.

“Development should be conducive for the whole society. The fruits of development should reach everyone,” said Nihal.

B.D. Sharma, chief guest at the meet, in his inaugural lecture highlighted the relevance of the term “development” in contemporary paradigm.

He said often development causes more problems than it cures for the underprivileged sections of society.

Indigenous dwellers of forests, who own the natural resources, do not get the fruits of the so-called “development”. “Rich and powerful people take these away,” added Sharma.

He also said the construction of infrastructure like dams and big projects have been undertaken after displacing original and indigenous settlers. But once the infrastructure comes up, these people do not benefit at all from these.

Development professionals, activists, planners and policy makers, academics and Central University of Bihar students took part in the meet which is divided into different thematic areas such as development governance, development and well-being, gender and development, natural resources, livelihood and migration.

Central University of Bihar started on 2009 and launched a master’s programme in development studies, under the school of social sciences and policy to train young development professionals.

“The demand for development professionals is increasing with enlarging dimensions of development activities. Our students have been rigorously trained to deal with the issues concerning multidimensional aspects of development,” said Nihal.

The first batch of students is presently in their last semester. In the year 2009, the Union ministry of human resources and development approved a proposal for the establishment of 16 central universities in various parts of the country on the basis of Central Universities Act, 2009.

In Bihar, the university was to be set up in Motihari. But even after two years, the university is functioning from its temporary home on the Birla Institute of Technology campus in Patna.