Patna, March 20: Education minister P.K. Shahi today conceded that all was not well in higher education.

Replying to a question of the BJP MLA, Achudanand, Shahi said the state of higher education was “far from satisfactory”. “There is lack of infrastructure, academic environment and teaching staff,” he said.

Shahi, who went public in holding Raj Bhavan responsible for the anarchy in the higher education in the state, did not make any reference to Governor Devanand Konwar while giving the answer.

The minister responded to the BJP MLA’s question by pointing out that the state had spent around Rs 3,080 crore on higher education in 2011-12.

“We have succeeded in creating centres of education like Chanakya National Law University and Chankaya Institute of Management. We have given land for opening Aligarh Muslim University. But improvement in higher education is a continuous process,” he said. Intervening in the matter, the Leader of the Opposition, Abdul Bari Siddiqui, said though the minister claimed that new institutions were opened, the situation of premier institutes like Patna College, Patna Science College and others were far from satisfactory. He asked the minister if there was any plan to improve the condition of the premier institutes in the state.

Shahi said with the existing budget it was very difficult to strengthen infrastructure of premier institutes of the state. “We will have to appoint teachers and build buildings in these institutes. About Rs 2,300 crore to Rs 2,500 crore are spent on the salaries and pension of teachers and non-teaching staff,” he said.

Responding to a question of BJP MLA Amarendra Pratap Singh, social welfare minister Parveen Amanullah announced that from the next year social security pension would be distributed through the district administration and not the post offices.

“We have held several rounds of talks with the postal department. But the problem of distribution of social pension among beneficiaries persists,” she said, pointing out that the process of distribution of pension by the district administration would start in four districts this year and would be extended to other districts next year.

Amanullah denied that there was slackness in distribution of social pension in the state.

The Speaker later suspended the question because the minister could not give the district-wise statistics on the distribution of social pension.

Several MLAs questioned the appointment of principals in colleges under Magadh University and alleged that the vice-chancellor had made the appointments by misleading the court on facts and not adhering to the rules. One of the MLAs raised the question of illegal mining of mica in Nawada and wanted the government to take action against illegal miners.

The treasury sought time for answering these questions.