7 yrs on, Champaran still awaits its central varsity

Motihari: Members of Champaran Vikas Sangharsh Morcha and different student organizations are staging a dharna and holding corner meetings for establishment of Mahatma Gandhi Central University (MGCU) at Motihari. It has now become an issue in the ensuing state assembly elections.

The agitating youths have alleged that both the Central government and the state government are equally responsible for the delay in the establishment of the university as neither a VC nor a registrar has been appointed for the university by Union HRD ministry so far. The process of acquisition of 300 acres of identified land near Motihari for establishment of the varisty is yet to start.

Deputy collector land reforms (DCLR) Kumar Mangalam said the East Champaran district administration cannot initiate land acquisition process without getting Social Impact Assessment (SIA) report from ANSISS, Patna, which is mandatory for any land acquisition. The ANSISS has demanded Rs 53 lakh for carrying out SIA of land acquisition.

The East Champaran DM has sent a letter to state education department to make available the amount or allow them to use the funds available here for land acquisition. Evaluation of social impact of those displaced after land acquisition is necessary before setting up any project, he added. He said 300 acres of land of different farmers have been selected with the consent of land owners of Bankat-Bairiya village near Motihari and the revenue officials after spot verification, examination of maps and documents of lands finally prepared the draft and map of the land. The DM, in a written statement, said the district administration has received Rs 275 crore from the state plan head.

CM Nitish Kumar on November 20, 2008, while inaugurating a new engineering college at Motihari, had announced that a Central University will be established at Motihari after Mahatma Gandhi’s name as Champaran is his workplace where he first experimented with ‘satyagrah’.

On the request of Bihar government, Union HRD ministry sent a site selection committee to Motihari in 2009, but the committee members did not approve the site and the then HRD minister Kapil Sibal announced that CUB would be established at Gaya.

On the other hand, CM Nitish Kumar was adamant on his earlier stand and at his initiative both the houses of state legislature passed a resolution for establishment of a Central University at Motihari also but the controversy surrounding its establishment has refused to die down and finally the NDA government on August 14, 20014 announced to establish a Central University at Motihari ..

Courtesy: TNN