Ahead of the 2015 Bihar assembly polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced a central university in Bihar’s Bhagalpur as part of a Rs 1.25 lakh crore package to the state. But a decade later, the varsity plan remains on paper with the draft detailed project report awaiting the Union education ministry’s approval.
It’s not the only central university in limbo in Bihar.
With cramped classrooms in rented buildings, the Mahatma Gandhi Central University in Motihari is yet to get a permanent campus nine years after its establishment. The varsity rolled out its academic programmes in 2016 and has 73 courses across 20 departments.
This is what Newslaundry found in response to RTI queries to the higher education department of the Union education ministry.
There are three other central universities in Bihar – the Central University of South Bihar in Gaya, the Nalanda University in Rajgir, and Dr Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University in Samastipur.
No funds, land acquisition incomplete
The higher education department’s response said the centre has released no funds for a permanent campus for MGCU.
According to the university’s annual reports on its website, around 302 acres was identified and approved by a site selection committee near Bankat-Bairia village in the financial year 2015-2016. The annual report for 2015-2016 states that the “process is in progress under the central government” while the report for 2016-2017 says about “136 acres of land is going to be notified by the Bihar government soon”. Since 2019-2020, the website has failed to provide any further information about the land acquisition.
These reports said the university’s administrative and academic work is being done in rented buildings. The vice-chancellor’s office and the university’s headquarters are in Raghunathpur, the women’s hostel is near Airport Chowk, and the temporary campus is in a district school in Motihari, according to these reports.
Meanwhile, at a convocation ceremony attended by President Draupadi Murmu in August 2024, Vice Chancellor Sanjay Kumar Srivastava said that 303 acres of land was needed to build the permanent campus, of which 262 acres were made available. He said steps are being taken to prepare the detailed project report and a permanent campus will come up within two-and-a-half years.
MGCU deputy registrar Sachchidanand Singh blamed the land acquisition delay on the “administrative process”. “If we look at the current situation, 90 percent of the land has been acquired…an agency has been hired to prepare the DPR…we got the land only last year. After that the Lok Sabha elections came. This is the reason for the delay.”
Students hit
The lack of a permanent campus impacts students.
An engineering student who finished his B Tech course in 2023 said students had to “face problems due to lack of rooms to study”. “When I got the admission, there were two B Tech and one M Tech batches. All three batches had about 80 students. We had a room where we used to attend classes in the afternoon. Before that, other classes were held in the same room. Then came Covid. So online studies started. When Covid subsided, many other courses started, which resulted in us being called to take classes at 7 am. We were told to attend classes before 9 am because after that the students of other classes had to study."
“After finishing the class, we were forced to stay outside. The situation is still the same. It’s not just about the room, the labs are also not in a good state for an engineering student.”
Despite such issues, the Indian Institutional Ranking Framework – prepared by a private institution – placed MGCU at the 20th spot among 50 central universities last year. The varsity has never featured in the top 100 names announced through the government’s National Institutional Ranking Framework every year.
Students say campus placement does not exist at the MGCU.
“For us, placement means that a student who studied here manages to get a job outside,” said Sachchidanand Singh.
Newslaundry reached out to the Union education ministry for comment. This report will be updated if a response is received.
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