Why Lalu, as minister in UPA, didn't help Patna University get central status, asks Sushil Modi

Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi has lashed out at RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav.

Sushil Modi questioned why Lalu did not make efforts to grant central university status to Patna University when he railways minister in the UPA government between 2004-09.

Asserting that the UPA government at the Centre, then, was surviving with the support of RJD, Lalu had no right to question PM Narendra Modi not entertaining the demand raised by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar during the centenary celebrations of the Patna University on October 14.

"Lalu was in power for 10 years at the Centre. Why did he not get central university status for PU", questioned Sushil Kumar Modi, deputy Chief Minister.

Sushil Modi, though, claimed that the PM had not straight away rejected the demand raised by Nitish Kumar and there was still a possibility of the 100 year old university being converted into central university. He claimed that Bihar was only second to Uttar Pradesh in having most numbers of central universities in the state.

"The Centre has not rejected Nitish Kumar's demand. This has been a popular demand in the last several years and in future there is a possibility of that PU may be converted into a central university. At the moment there are four central universities in the state and the fifth one, Vikramshila University is in the pipeline. The state govt will improve the infrastructure at the PU in coming days", said the deputy CM.

Reacting to former deputy CM Tejaswi Yadav's attack on him after he allegedly made a comment at a conclave in Patna on Tuesday claiming that development had stopped in Bihar after BJP-JDU alliance broke in 2013, Modi said that his comments were misconstrued and Tejaswi had no moral right to raise such issues. "Tejaswi is a small child. Today he has been left with no work but to tweet. When he was given a chance to change Bihar, he was busy roaming in Delhi and London. I simply said that after the BJP-JDU alliance broke in 2013, pace of development had taken a hit especially in departments which was held by RJD", said, Sushil Kumar Modi.