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Patna,(BiharTimes): About a dozen MPs, mostly of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from Bihar, walked out from Parliament and sat on dharna on Jantar Mantar on Monday to press their demand for opening the Central University of Bihar at Motihari and not Gaya as proposed by the Human Resources Development Minister, Kapil Sibal.
Prominent among those who sat on dharna were Shahnawaz Husian (MP from Bhagalpur), Rama Devi (from Seohar), Sanjay Jaiswal (from Bettiah), Radha Mohan Singh (from Motihari) etc––the last three representing East and West Champaran districts.
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Speaking to media Radha Mohan Singh, who is also the former state BJP chief, said that Motihari has better infrastructure than half a dozen places in the country where Central Universities have come up in the recent years.
Opposing Gaya as a venue he said Motihari should be allotted University because the chief minister Nitish Kumar first proposed its name and Gandhiji launched his first movement from here. Besides, Raxaul, which is 50 km from Motihari, has an airport. The town itself is connected with a four-lane highway, he said.
On the other hand, in Gaya thousands of people braved scorching sun on Monday to form a 20-km long human chain from Panchanpur, where the defence ministry has offered the land for CUB, to Gandhi Maidan in Gaya town.
Vijay Kumar Mithu, who is leading the campaign in Gaya questioned the chief minister’s decision to oppose University in Bihar when the Centre is not even asking for land. Besides, Sibal has already assured full help to open a state university in Motihari.
Those campaigning for CUB in Bihar accuse the chief minister and NDA leaders of spreading lies. Lack of infrastructure is just one of the factors which goes against Motihari. There are many other reasons too. They have been clearly mentioned in the Central Universities Act, which these NDA leaders are deliberately hiding from the people, they add.
They questioned as to why the chief minister has failed to bring scholars like Ramachandra Guha and Pratap Bhanu Mehta as the VC of Nalanda International University, which is going to come up in his home district.
A Reader in a Delhi University college, Ms Gopa Sabharwal, had agreed to become VC but then she too is functioning from New Delhi. “If Nitish Kumar can not bring a VC of such a reputed international university even to Patna, if not Nalanda, how can he assure that faculties from all over the country would come to Motihari, which is much far away in the flood-prone district of north Bihar,” asks Sujit Kumar, one of those opposing the politicization of the issue by the state government.
What is something unusual is that unlike Janata Dal (United), it is the BJP MPs, who were more aggressive in their demand at Jantar Mantar on Monday.
Anyway the issue had divided the NDA into two as their leaders coming from Magadh region are backing the CUB in Gaya. Even the BJP minister and Gaya MLA, Prem Kumar, has supported the people of Gaya.
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