Purnea, Jan. 7: Chief minister Nitish Kumar addressed a mass gathering at a field near Baisi Chowk, around 30km from Purnea, on the concluding day of his three-day Seva Yatra today. Prior to that, he laid the foundation stone of various schemes worth Rs 509 crore.

Addressing the audience, Nitish said: “A degree college will be set up on a vacant National Highways Authority of India plot at Chiraiya village under Baisi subdivision.” He added: “I am inspired by the work of self-help groups (SHGs) set up in co-operation with Jeevika, a non-government organisation. I have seen the work of public distribution system being done through SHGs without any complaint. Their work is very useful and it would be replicated across the state.”

In his address, Nitish said whenever he came to know of scams related to Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, he took action. He mentioned that bank passbooks would be distributed to Indira Awas Yojana beneficiaries across the state through camps on January 11. The chief minister conducted a review meeting with officials and public representatives at the district administration’s auditorium today before flagging off a fleet of five city buses from the district magistrate’s office. Ten more buses, which will ply to 14 blocks of the district, will arrive by the end of this month. Nitish paid a visit to a fort in Jalalgarh after getting to know about it from the newspapers. He directed the district administration to make a detailed report of its historical perspective and said it could be developed as a tourist place. He also laid emphasis on a study to be conducted by the Archaeological Society of India. However, Nitish also visited the jute park at Maranga yesterday and said once the machinery is installed in April, he would visit it again. He also inspected mushroom cultivation at Maranga.

State co-operative minister and minister in-charge of Purnea district Ramadhar Singh, Purnea MP Uday Singh, some MLAs, MLCs of the district and other public representatives were present at the public gathering at Baisi.

On the issue of setting up a special centre of Aligarh Muslim Univeristy (AMU), Nitish said: “The AMU vice-chancellor had initially shown willingness in setting up the varisty centre at Katihar. But considering the backwardness of Kishanganj, I asked him to set up the centre at Kishanganj rather than in Katihar. We have made a contiguous land of 224.02 acres available according to AMU’s demand.”