PATNA: Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi today charged the Nitish Kumar government with delay in acquiring land for construction of at least three academic and medical projects in Bihar despite obtaining a clearance from the Centre.
The Centre had sanctioned the second unit of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) and Central University at Vikramsheela, but no headway has been made in construction of these projects as the state government has failed to acquire land in this regard, he said in a statement.
Any number of letters have been written by various central ministries to the state government for acquisition of land for the second unit of AIIMS, IIIT and central university at Vikramsheela, but it has neither stepped up efforts to acquire land nor replied to the letters, Modi, a former deputy chief minister, said.
"The Bihar government, which does not miss a single opportunity to charge the Centre with bias against the state, now owes an explanation to the people as to why three important academic and medical institutions of national importance have not made headway so far," he said.
The NDA government had made a commitment on setting up a unit of IIIT in Bihar two years ago, while the announcement for the second unit of AIIMS in the state was made by the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in 2015-16 budget.
The proposal for a central university at Vikramsheela in Bhagalpur district was part of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's special package of Rs 1.25 lakh crore for Bihar and a provision for Rs 500 crore was made for creation of the said university.