Nitish rejects the doctorate degree by PU

PATNA: Chief minister Nitish Kumar has declined the offer of Patna University (PU) to confer upon him an honorary doctorate degree at the annual convocation scheduled for March 28. The PU syndicate had decided to award the degree to Nitish in view of his valuable contribution to the development of Bihar.

A few years back, the then chief minister, Lalu Prasad, had also declined the PU’s offer for an honorary doctorate in view of the reported controversy among the academics on this issue.

More than 1,700 PU scholars who passed post-graduation and PhD examinations of 2010 will be conferred on their degrees at the annual convocation scheduled to be held at the SK Memorial Hall. Former Lt. General S K Sinha is likely to be the chief guest and deliver the convocation address. Governor-cum-chancellor Devanand Konwar will preside over the function.

PU examination controller D N Sharma said the students whose results were announced by July 2010 would receive their degrees at the convocation. As many as 56 toppers of different examinations would be awarded gold medals.

Earlier, the convocation was scheduled to be held in September last year, but it could not be held due to some technical reasons.