The tragedy with this University is that it is still landless notwithstanding having the best faculty in the state and hundreds of bright students selected after competitive exam. Almost all those engaged in teaching here have degrees from IIT, JNU or even foreign universities. Yet today neither the ruling class of the state nor the media nor the society, in general, is bothered about such prestigious institution not getting land––even facing eviction order.

Secondly, an important myth woven by a section of media with the help of ruling establishment of Bihar needs to be exploded. The CUB has never demanded that it be given land in Patna or its vicinity as is being made out.

The CUB was set up in September 2009 following the passing of Act by Parliament. As per the Act the Centre demanded proposal for land from all the dozen-odd states where it planned to open new central universities. The Act clearly mentions that the each state had to send the proposal of land from three places and one of them would be selected for this purpose.

Sources said that as per the proposal the state government asked the district magistrates of all the districts to send details of about 1000 acres of land for the CUB. The district magistrates of Jamui, Vaishali and East Champaran (Motihari is its district headquarters) sent their proposal to the state government while the rest did not.

Sources said that the Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, who was aware of the Union government’s move to open CUB since 2008, while inaugurating Motihari Engineering College some three years back, announced before the assembled crowd that he would soon bring a central university to this town.

Sources added “It sounded somewhat bizarre as to how a chief minister can so brazenly announce that his government is opening a central university, when it has nothing to do with the issue. Establishing a central university is in the Union List and the states are only asked to provide land.”

But Nitish, according to the CUB sources, went on with his announcement to earn goodwill of the masses who do not differentiate between what the Centre is doing and what the state government is doing.

Sources said that chief minister Nitish Kumar was bent upon opening the CUB in Motihari from the very beginning because he had made the public commitment there. So when the proposals of land from three district was put before him to be sent to the Centre he rejected that of Vaishali and Jamui. Instead he asked the chief secretary to tell the district magistrate of East Champaran (Motihari is the district headquarters) to send two more proposals. “This was something very unusual,” the sources added. The district magistrate sent two other proposals in a hurry.

When the central team came to see land they were taken just to East Champaran and not to Vaishali and Jamui. HRD secretary Anjani Kumar Singh accompanied it to the site. All the three places in East Champaran were shown to them. Two of the sites were water-logged where there is no scope for any educational institutions, not to speak of any central university, to come up, the sources said.

However, the original proposal sent by the district magistrate too is one and a half kilometres from the four-lane highway. There are two plots of land––one of about 700 acres and other of about 300 acres. In-between the 700 acre plot and the highway there is a chunk of land, which among others, belong to a very resourceful person having right connection with the ruling establishment of Bihar.

At the Press Conference the same evening the central team which visited the three spots in the district made no final announcement about the Central University of Bihar.  In spite of this a billboard, hinting that the CUB is about to be established, came up some distance away from the highway.

It was a well-thought out plan by the local land mafia to raise the price of the land in the vicinity of the highway. The hoarding was later removed.

The central team did not give its nod to this place too because it lacked both physical infrastructure and social infrastructure. There was problem of connectivity, which is essential for an institution like a central university.

Besides, as per the provision the population of the place where a central university is to come up should be five lakh. There should be certain number of graduate colleges and professional institutes. Since the proposed place had not been fulfilling these criteria laid down by the Act and the Gross Enrollment Ratio too was not upto the mark the Central team was left with no option. Besides, the state government had not shown the central team land sites in any other district though, according to the Act, it was mandatory for it.

In the meantime chief minister repeatedly gave statements saying that the state government would not give land in any place other than Motihari. Even at the time of the foundation laying ceremony of IIT in Bihta near Patna a few months back Nitish said that he wished the change of heart of the VC of CUB, Janak Pandey, who was present at that function. What he meant to state was that the VC should agree to take land in Motihari.

Not only the VC and other CUB officials were surprised by his public rhetoric even the Union HRD minister, Kapil Sibal, was taken aback as it was not the case of Janak Pandey vs the state government. Sibal used almost the same phrase to tell Nitish to give up his insistence to have University only and only in Motihari. The tit-for-tat continued for a while on the stage with Sibal ‘having the clear edge’.

University sources also said that after this development came the move to destabilize and disturb the functioning of the CUB from its makeshift campus in the premises of Birla Institute of Technology near Patna Airport.

Till as late as August last the relationship between the BIT and CUB was very cordial. True the two-year contract signed in June 2009 was to expire on September 30, 2011 but the CUB top brass never expected that they would not get land in Bihar in this two long years, as they have heard much about the ‘development-minded’ chief minister.

It was on August 18 that the CUB got the eviction notice. This came as a bolt from the blue. The learned faculty members and students who had such a good reputation about the chief minister were shocked as to what is happening in the state.

What is interesting is that the BIT authorities till recently never talked of getting their premises evicted as they were not making any use of a sizeable portion of the infrastructure. In contrast they got a rent of Rs 65 lakh for two years.

The VC, registrar and other officials of BIT held several discussions with the CUB VC, registrar etc to collaborate in higher studies and research, especially in Bio-Technology and Environmental Science. They thought that the CUB would be of great help to them.

It was mutually agreed that labs would be situated in the upcoming 55 ft by 110 ft hall and both the institutes would make use of it. But once its construction was completed it was locked by the BIT authorities. All this created suspicion in the mind of the CUB officials as well the students.

Media reports from Human Resource Development Ministry in New Delhi sometimes back suggested that the authorities of BIT-Patna was being pressurized by Nitish Kumar-led State government to make it difficult for the University to continue.

Reports also said that the Ministry had already made it clear that if Bihar does not resolve the issue of land allocation, the Centre may have to allow the University to buy private land for its campus. However, the Ministry wants to avoid this option.

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