Cabinet OKs 2 new universities

Patna: The Bihar cabinet on Saturday approved setting up of two new universities, Pataliputra University at Patna and Purnia University at Purnia.
It approved the Bihar University (amendment) Bill, 2016 so as to amend the Bihar State University Act, 1976 for facilitating the establishment of the two universities. With the coming up of the two universities, the number of state universities will increase to 16.
According to state education minister Ashok Choudhary, the two new universities have been proposed to ease the workload of Bodh Gaya-headquartered Magadh University (MU) and Madhepura-headquartered Mandal University.
MU and Mandal University are "overburdened" as they have to cater to a number of colleges, Choudhary said and added Pataliputra University would have under its jurisdiction all the MU colleges located in Patna and Nalanda districts.
Similarly, Purnia University would have under its jurisdiction Mandal University colleges located in Katihar, Araria, Purnia and Kishanganj districts. "The students of these districts have to travel long distances to reach their university office at Madhepura. They have been demanding a separate university for long, and CM Nitiish Kumar had sometime back announced that a university would be set up at Purnia to end their hardship," Choudhary said.
The education minister said the two new universities would be made functional soon -- "maybe in four to five months". Asked if the new university at Patna would be named after emperor Ashoka, he said it would depend on the consensus among all stakeholders.