Patna, May 16: Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has lately been miserly with permissions for excavations at ancient sites in Bihar.

Excavation works at three important archaeological sites - Balirajgarh (Raja Bali ka Garh) fort in Madhubani, an ancient university at Telhara in Nalanda and a Gupta period temple at Chausa in Buxar - are suspended since the past eight months because of non-issuance of licences by the ASI.

The only site in Bihar, which has been sanctioned for carrying out further excavations this year, is Chechar in Vaishali. The state archaeological directorate, working under the art, culture and youth affairs department, is carrying out excavations at Chechar.

The proposals for continuing the excavations at Telhara and Chausa were also submitted by the state archaeological directorate but got rejected. Leave alone proposals by the state government, the ASI's headquarters did not approve the proposal of its Patna circle as well to carry out further excavations at Balirajgarh.

ASI's Patna circle superintending archaeologist Hemsagar A. Naik claimed the ASI would not take up any fresh excavation exercise anywhere in Bihar this year (2015-16). Naik claimed the ASI's Patna circle does not have time for carrying out fresh excavations.

"We do not have time for carrying out any excavations," Naik said today.

The rejection for carrying out excavations at archaeological sites seems to have sparked a tussle between the state government and the ASI. Chief minister Nitish Kumar, during an official programme in Patna yesterday, strongly criticised the ASI for its negligent attitude towards Bihar. "We first approached the ASI for conducting excavation works at Telhara but it was rejected. Later, we got the work done by the state archaeological directorate. The ASI somehow got ready to conduct the excavations at Balirajgarh but that is progressing slowly," Nitish said.

It was on a personal persuasion of Nitish that the excavations on Balirajgarh commenced in January 2014. Located around 260km from Patna, Balirjgarh is an ASI- protected monument notified by the name "Remains of Ancient Fort or Garh locally known as Raja Bali ka Garh". It is at a small village, Balirajgarh, situated 38km west of the Madhubani district headquarters. The protected site is spread across 176 acres. Around 400 antiquities dating back from the Sunga to Pala period were found there during the excavation last year.

The approval of the annual licence for carrying excavations at an archaeological site is given by the ASI's central advisory board of archaeology. Sources claimed rules regarding the issuance of licence were tweaked lately.

"The new rules state that places where excavations have been done continuously for the past four years should be put on hold. In case proposals for further excavations are sent, proper justification should be made regarding it. Also, any proposal for excavation by any of the regional circles of ASI should come from their respective excavation branches," said an official of the state archaeological directorate.

With regard to Telhara, Atul Kumar Verma, the director at the state archaeology directorate, claimed that fresh proposal for further excavation would be sent to ASI in July. "The excavation site is 1sqkm and only 20 per cent of it has been excavated till date. We estimate that the remains of the university are buried underneath seven mounds, of which only three are visible at present," said Verma.