Patna, (Bihar Times): Even as the final signal is yet
to come over the choice for the Indian Institute of
Technology campus, land prices have shot up in Bihta
near Patna. Media hype––sometimes unnecessary––is only
helping the land mafia to make fast money.
The prices on both sides of the National Highway have,
in the last several months, increased more than ten
times––from Rs 10,000 per katha to Rs one lakh per
katha.
Bihta falls in the foodgrains basket of Bihar––the
Shahabad region. Situated on the eastern bank of River
Sone the land is extremely fertile yet nobody is
opposing the acquisition of land––in fact willingly
giving them in the hope that they would not only get
very good price but also job. This phenomenon is very
different from elsewhere in the country where farmers
are extremely reluctant in giving up their land.
Incidentally many of the farmers who are giving land
are very affluent.
Bihta has a lone sugar mill––which is also closed––and
an air force base. Sikandarpur in Bihta, where the
state government is proposing to give land, is 42 kms
from Patna and the place is accessible both from road
and rail link.
In all 550 acres of land has been ‘acquired’ and the
state government is awaiting fund from the Centre for
paying the farmers, whose fertile land will be taken
for the IIT. It would be after the filling of land
that the real construction work would start. But all
this will happen only when the Union human resources
development ministry takes a final decision.
Sources said that the media is rather unnecessarilyy
raking up the issue of differences between the state
government and the Centre over the opening of IIT. In
the recent past the railway minister, Lalu Yadav, had
never uttered anything on the IIT being opened in
Chapra yet the media is repeatedly playing up the same
old story just to make the story spicy.
The central team which came to inspect the site in
Bihta only talked of the water-logging and did not say
anything for or against it. The IITs are opened by the
central government and all the aspects are taken into
account. Mere a statement made a long back, that it
should be opened in Chapra, does not influence the
opening of IIT as it is being wrongly projected in the
Press in Bihar.
Bihta has several advantages, yet apart from
water-logging there is another disadvantage. It will
be the only IIT in the country so far away from the
city. Even IIT Mumbai is situated near Powai and is
not as far away from the commercial capital of India.
Bihta may be linked with road and rail, but it still
lacks many other facilities.