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Patna,(BiharTimes): When the battle is on between Motihari and Gaya over the location of the Central University of Bihar (CUB), Patna University (PU) has once again staked its claim for that status.
According to its Vice Chancellor Shambhu Nath Singh the university has initiated a fresh move demanding central university status. A proposal to this effect, duly approved by various statutory bodies like the Academic Council, the Syndicate and the Senate of the university, would be submitted to the Central government soon. |
Media reports said that he had recently held talks with Union Human Resources Development minister Kapil Sibal and Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on HRD, Oscar Fernandez, in New Delhi in this connection.
The Vice Chancellor pointed out that proposals for according central university status to Patna University were sent to the Centre in the past too, but they were not pursued properly. PU has always been ignored as there was no strong political lobby to push its case. Even though several old universities, including Allahabad University, Goa University, Guru Ghasidas University, Bilaspur (Chhattisgarh) and H P Singh University, Sagar (Madhya Pradesh) were made central universities, the Centre never considered the case of PU seriously.
Singh said that being the seventh oldest university of the country, PU fulfils all the basic criteria required for a central university.
Though he clarified that PU’s claim had nothing to do with the opening of Central University of Bihar most academics and political observers in the state feel that the demand has nothing to do with the ground reality. Even several political leaders such as Dr C P Thakur of BJP and Raghuvansh Prasad Singh of RJD have made similar demands recently. Chief minister Nitish Kumar has, on several occasions, supported PU’s demand for central status.
Patna University Teachers’ Association (PUTA) president P K Poddar, said that it was at the PUTA’s initiative three years ago that hundreds of intellectuals, academics, doctors and lawyers had marched on the streets of Patna to press for PU’s demand for central university status.
However, it is generally felt that the Centre is not going to accept any such demand as it has a very bitter experience so far NIT and CUB are concerned. Eight years back the Bihar College of Engineering got elevated to NIT Patna but the state government is yet to give land to it. Similarly, the case of CUB is known to all. The IIT and AMU’s Bihar branch too got land after three long years of struggle. “After all Patna University can not be granted central university status in a few acres of land at Ashok Rajpath. The state government will have to cooperate at least on this count. The demand to make PU a central university is repeatedly made just for public consumption. Why raise the demand of so many central universities, when even one has not been finalized” asked an observer.
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