Deadlock over the location of Central University hangs its future

The prolonged stand-off between the Centre and the Bihar government over the location of a central university in the state has cast a big question mark over the fate of the proposed project.

Almost three years have elapsed since the Union ministry for human resource development (HRD) decided to set up a central university in Bihar, but no progress has been made so far.

The state government had selected East Champaran district as the location of the university in Bihar. Chief minister Nitish Kumar had finalised it because of certain reasons, the most important being its association with the freedom struggle.

It was from Champaran that Mahatma Gandhi had launched his famous satyagraha movement against the British Raj.

Nitish apparently thinks that a central university at Motihari, the district headquarters of East Champaran, will be a tribute to the Mahatma in view of his association with the place. Besides, he thinks that setting up of a central university at a place far away from the state capital augurs well for the inclusive growth of the underdeveloped state. He insists that Motihari is ideally located for the purpose and voices his reservation against opening each and every important institution in and around Patna. He also says that the people of East Champaran are willing to give away their land at three places for the university.

The Centre has a different take on that, though. Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal, who was on a visit to Patna to lay the foundation stone of the new campus of the Indian Institute of Technology at Bihta near the state capital recently, does not share Nitish’s enthusiasm for Champaran as a great location for the university. In fact, his ministry has rejected Motihari and asked the Bihar government to suggest alternate locations.

Interestingly, the Union ministry had initially given its nod to East Champaran but its factfinding team later found out that the district did not have adequate infrastructure. Sibal says that the importance of Gandhi’s association with Champaran cannot be undermined but the place today lacks basic facilities like good schools for the children of the faculty, cheaper health care and adequate entertainment avenues.

He says that the good prospective faculty members desist from going to such places.

The minister has also argued that the Centre should have some say in selection of the location because it funds the central university. He has now asked Nitish to be flexible on the location issue.

Nitish, however, has made it clear in no uncertain terms that his government will rather wait for the day when the Centre gives its nod to Motihari. He says that infrastructure could be developed around the place to meet the requirements of the new university. As a result, the state government’s ” Motiharior- nowhere else” approach has put everything on hold.

The deadlock has raised pertinent question over who should make the final selection of such projects. Can a region be left to languish in the morass of underdevelopment just because it has no infrastructure to boast of? Should the governments refrain from setting up prestigious institutions in such places? Should the Centre have the power to reject the venue proposed by the state government just because it provides funds to run the university? Should it be the sole discretion of the state government to select the location since it understands the needs of different regions better than the Centre? Nitish and Sibal must ponder over these issues and work in tandem to set up the central university in the state at the earliest.

Bihar does not have any central university but the adjoining Uttar Pradesh has had four for several years. Motihari or elsewhere, Bihar must have a central university and the sooner the better.