The ruins of Vikramshila Mahavihara in Bhagalpur. Picture by Amit Kumar

Bhagalpur, June 20: Chief minister Nitish Kumar, who on one hand, has earned praises for pushing forward the Nalanda University, is on the other hand being criticised for neglecting Vikramshila World University.

People in this historical city are infuriated because of the apathy shown to the ancient Vikramshila Mahavihara, a contemporary world university of Nalanda Mahavihara and Takshila University.

Infrastructure bottleneck has adversely hit the much-talked about efforts of making the partly excavated ruins of the ancient world university, Vikramshila Mahavihara, a popular tourist destination.

Located around 40km north-east of Ganga, Bhagalpur district headquarters, Vikramshila had witnessed sharp increase in tourist inflow between November and March last year. However, the mismanagement had become a nightmare for foreign tourists.

“After 35 years of excavation by the Archaeological Survey of India, Patna circle, no work has been done on the site in the pattern of Nalanda,” said N.K. Jaiswal, convener of Vikramshila Nagarik Samiti.

He said: “The body has decided to start a movement to press for the demand of including Vikramshila in the Lord Buddha tourist circuit.”

Pawan Kumar Choudhary, a social worker-cum-expert in Vikramshila affairs, has lambasted the government for its lackadaisical attitude towards the excavated ruins, which was once a seat of learning in the country during the 8th to 12th century. “The heaps of garbage and filthy drains at Bateshwarsthan-Vikramshila, add to the woes of the tourists,” said Choudhury.

Choudhary said: “If anyone wants to stay here, then one will have to travel around 30km to reach Bhagalpur. Besides, there is no public transportation available from Kahalgaon to Vikramshila. Tourists have to hire a vehicle to reach here.” He added: “We need support from International Buddhist Organisation. If the state government does not help us we will approach such international bodies. Nishi Kant Dubey, BJP MP from Godda in Jharkhand has been co-ordinating such international organisations and we hope our approach would be fruitful. There is no electricity, drinking water and health care facilities available at Vikramshila.”

State health minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey who represents Bhagalpur Assembly segment said he has been fighting for the cause of Vikramshila. “I have been trying my best to include Vikramshila in the Buddhist circuit of India,” said Choubey. But he remained silent when asked why Nitish was not taking measures to improve the facilities at Vikramshila.