The chances of Mahatma Gandhi Central University in Motihari launching academic activities from the session beginning July appear bleak.

Over two months since Arvind Agarwal was appointed vice-chancellor, the varsity administration is still looking for a facility where to hold classes. Its helplessness contrasts sharply with chief minister Nitish Kumar's relentless effort to set up the Central University in Motihari since announcing about it during his Seva Yatra in December 2009. He insisted on Motihari, 160km northwest of Patna, as Mahatma Gandhi had launched the freedom movement from Champaran in 1917.

The Manmohan Singh government was opposed to the idea citing poor rail and air connectivity. It preferred Gaya for the campus. But Nitish remained steadfast in his resolve and in July 2012, then Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal announced setting up of a central university in Motihari too, as per Nitish's wishes.

But nearly four years after the announcement, the university administration has neither received land for a permanent campus nor a building to set up a temporary campus in. "I am not getting any cooperation from any quarters to set up the university," said vice-chancellor Agarwal. "I have made several pleas to the state government for a temporary campus, but all my efforts have gone in vain." Agarwal said he would issue an advertisement in dailies seeking a private building spread over 60,000 sq feet to run classes in.

The state government's lack of seriousness is apparent from the fact that neither minister nor education department officials had a definite idea about progress of work on the central university.

State education minister Ashok Choudhary is in Bengal campaigning for Congress candidates for the Assembly elections there. "I don't have any idea about the progress in providing temporary campus to Motihari University," he said. "The university will soon get its temporary campus," state education department (higher education) director Khalid Mirza said. But he refused to set a deadline.

Education department sources said the varsity is facing the same plight that Central University of Bihar (CUB), now known as Central University of South Bihar (CUSB), faced when it was first being set up.