New Delhi, March 2: Nitish Kumar’s insistence that Motihari should be the location for the Central University of Bihar (CUB) has put the Union government in a fix as a question mark now hangs over the human resource development (HRD) ministry’s decision to have the education facility at Gaya.

Sources said it would be difficult for the Centre to go ahead and set up the institution at Gaya ignoring the Bihar chief minister’s views.

The sources said “nothing is clear now” regarding site selection for setting up the permanent campus of the first central university in Bihar.

“It has become a major issue. Nothing can be said about the site now,” a source said.

The Centre and the Bihar government are at loggerheads over finalising a site for the CUB campus.

This is the only central university for which no site has been finalised so far even after three years of functioning. Created along with 15 other such institutions under the Central Universities Act, CUB has been operating from a temporary campus in Patna.

The HRD ministry’s contention is that the campus in Motihari may not attract good faculty, a key requirement for excellence of any institution. It is learnt that a Union minister also spoke to HRD minister Kapil Sibal and requested him to accept Motihari as the site. But Sibal is understood to have said that a campus in such a far-flung area would only put the growth of CUB in jeopardy.

The ministry has identified 300 acres of defence land on the outskirts of Gaya, which has both air and rail connectivity.

Nitish wrote to Sibal on Wednesday opposing the “unilateral” decision to set up the university in Gaya. Yesterday, the chief minister said he would also write to defence minister AK Antony, asking him not to transfer army land to the HRD ministry and instead return it to the state.

Nitish has accused Sibal of “double standards”, saying the Centre had accepted the proposal of several other state governments on the site for central universities, often in far-flung areas.

An HRD official admitted that the ministry had, in 2009, accepted a few sites as proposed by the state governments even though they are far away from urban centres or cities. Such places are Mahendragarh in Haryana, which is around 330km from the capital Chandigarh, Thiruvarur in Tamil Nadu, around 300km from Chennai and Sunabeda in Koraput, Odisha, which is over 500km from the state capital Bhubaneswar.

“Though these sites have been accepted, these institutions have failed to attract good faculties so far. That is why the ministry is insisting on factors like rail and air connectivity and urban centres in proximity while selecting the site for a central university. The ministry has also rejected a few sites proposed by state governments of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Punjab on this ground,” the official said.

Parliament passed the Central Universities Act in February 2009 to set up 12 such educational hubs. The Act was later amended to create one more central university in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Union government has finalised the sites for permanent campus for all the central universities except CUB. Some of them have already shifted to the permanent campus.

For example, the Central University of Rajasthan last week shifted all its 14 departments to the new campus in Kishangarh, about 80km from the state capital Jaipur. The institution has recruited about 60 faculty members so far.

“The academic and administrative blocks have been completed. Last week, we shifted all our departments to the new campus. We have recruited good faculty members who were teaching in IITs and state universities. Some of the new faculties have earned their PhD from institutions in the US,” said Central University of Rajasthan vice-chancellor M.M. Salunkhe.

Before joining an institute, a senior faculty member considers factors such as good school for children, a good hospital near the campus and connectivity, Salunkhe said.

Central University of Karnataka vice-chancellor A.M. Pathan said the institution is located in Kadaganchi, 30km from Gulbarga and 250km for Hyderabad, the nearest airport. Yet, it has attracted good faculty members so far.

“It all depends on the kind of courses the institute is offering and the kind of teaching and research taking place. If the institute is excellent, faculty members would not mind joining despite its remote location,” he said.

Delay in site selection for CUB poses impediments to the growth of the institution. The varsity plans to set up 14 departments in different subjects for masters and research programmes. But the plans are on hold for want of a permanent campus.