D Purandeswari at NIT in Patna on Sunday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, May 8: The Centre today turned down the repeated demands of chief minister Nitish Kumar to cover all 38 districts under the Sakshar Bharat Yojana, a literacy mission that aims to connect all backward regions in the country.

The latest blow to Bihar from the Centre came from Union minister of state for human resource development D. Purandeswari, who had come to Patna to lay the foundation stone of new hostels and a students’ activity centre of the National Institute of Technology (NIT).

Purandeswari also ruled out converting Patna University into a central university and setting up the Central University of Bihar (CUB) at Motihari.

The red flag comes days after reports surfaced in the media about the Centre’s move to cancel the allocation of a coal block to Bihar.

Purandeswari’s statement is likely to increase the already high pitch of the state government which has accused the Centre of adopting a “step-motherly” attitude towards Bihar after the electoral rout of the Congress. Nitish has already blamed the Centre for the power crisis in Bihar.

Purandeswari said the Centre was unable to grant central university status to Patna University. “We have problem in converting old universities in the country, Patna University included, into central universities as they are being governed by their own rules and regulations.”

The minister’s statement assumes importance as earlier, there have been demands from various quarters for converting Patna University into a central university. Even the chief minister, at the first anniversary celebrations of Aryabhatt Knowledge University (AKU) on March 17, had talked about the need for a central university tag for Patna University.

Nitish’s dream of expanding the Sakshar Bharat Yojana across all 38 districts in Bihar has also hit a roadblock. Purandeswari categorically stated that the Centre was unable to bring all 38 districts of Bihar under the Sakshar Bharat Yojana.

The Sakshar Bharat Mission, launched by the Centre in 2009, is a flagship programme of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to provide functional literacy to those over 15 years of age. The project aims to achieve cent per cent literacy in 365 low literacy districts, where adult female literacy rate is 50 per cent less as per the 2001 Census. In Bihar, under the Sakshar Bharat Yojana three districts — Khagaria, Begusarai and Bhojpur — are covered.

The Nitish government has talked about connecting all 38 districts under the scheme so that all people who are above 15 years are covered under the scheme.

Purandeswari, while speaking to the media, said: “We can’t cover all the districts in Bihar as we have to look after other educationally backward districts in country.”

Bihar’s principal secretary, human resource development, Anjani Kumar Singh appeared oblivious of the central’s minister’s statement. Singh claimed that the state had finalised the details with the Centre for bringing all 38 districts under the mission.