New Delhi, Dec. 9: Bihar is set to get an additional Central University in East Champaran with Parliament passing a bill for this purpose after five years of tussle.

The Rajya Sabha today passed the Central Universities (Amendment) Bill 2014 with all parties supporting the establishment of an additional central university in the backward region of Bihar.

The Lok Sabha had passed the bill earlier. The new law will come into effect after it gets President's assent and notified in the Gazette of India.

The university has been named after Mahatma Gandhi, as East Champaran was the place where the Father of the Nation experimented with the idea of 'Satyagraha' during the 'Neel Andolan' in 1917.

Replying to over two-hour long discussion on the bill, human resource development (HRD) minister Smriti Irani said her ministry would 'actively' consider the demand of a few members for renaming the University of South Bihar in Gaya after Gautam Buddha.

Congress leader Digvijay Singh, JDU leaders Harivansh and Anil Kumar Sahani had moved amendments to rename of the Central University of South Bihar after Buddha.

The Parliament in 2009 had passed the Central Universities Act providing for setting up of 13 new central universities and converting three state universities to central universities.

According to the original plans, Bihar was supposed to get one university. The HRD ministry selected Gaya as the location, while then chief minister Nitish Kumar insisted on Motihari in East Champaran.

The tussle continued for almost three years and it was settled after the HRD ministry decided to set up two central universities, Central University of South Bihar in Gaya and Central University of North Bihar in Motihari.

In order to have an additional university, the original law had to be amended. The UPA government tried to amend it but could not succeed as the 15th Lok Sabha was dissolved in May this year.

The UPA government was not keen to name the Central University of North Bihar after Gandhi on the ground that none of the 13 newly set up central universities was named after any personality. However, the NDA government overruled that position and decided to name it after Gandhi.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh sought to give the entire credit for this university to Nitish Kumar. He said the higher education sector has witnessed a lot of expansion in the last decade. The challenge is now quality, he said.

Samajwadi Party leader Javed Ali Khan said the government must focus on filling vacant teaching posts in central universities. Most of the varsities are managing through contract faculties, he said.

In her reply, Irani said the government is focussing on improving the regulatory mechanism in higher education. It has set up different committees to look into the functioning of regulators like University Grants Commission, All India Council of Technical Education and National Council of Teacher Education.

Listing out the initiatives taken by her ministry, she highlighted the launch of Unnat Bharat Abhiyan to discourage brain drain. She also said till the infrastructure problems in North East are addressed, students from that region are encouraged to complete a part of their programme with central universities to gain knowledge.