File photo of JD(U) leader in Rajya Sabha RCP Singh.

PATNA: Ruling JD(U) on Monday demanded that the proposed Indian Institute of Heritage and Conservation ( IIHC ) should be set up in Bihar, preferably beside the iconic Nalanda University in the historical city of Rajgir.

Presenting the Union Budget for 2020-21 in the Parliament on February 1 this year, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed the setting up of an IIHC with the status of a deemed university under the Ministry of Culture .

“In her Budget speech, Sitharaman didn’t mention any place where the proposed Institute would be set up. Participating in a discussion on the Budget in the Rajya Sabha today, I urged the Union government to set up the proposed IIHC in Bihar because the state has a series of heritage and archeological sites of world fame,” JD(U) Leader in the Upper House Ram Chandra Prasad Singh told TOI over phone from Delhi on Monday.

Singh said, he also urged the Narendra Modi government to set up the proposed deemed university just beside the iconic Nalanda University in Bihar’s Rajgir town to facilitate a better environment to its students and researchers.

“If the proposed IIHC is set up beside the Nalanda University, its students, scholars and researchers will get benefits of two universities,” Singh said in the Rajya Sabha.

Located in Rajgir, Nalanda is a standalone international university unlike any other established in the country. It is mandated to be an “international institution for the pursuit of intellectual, philosophical, historical and spiritual studies” through a law.

Singh further highlighted some new initiatives taken in the Budget by Sitharaman and congratulated her for presenting a “development-oriented” budget.

Attacking former union finance minister P Chidambaram for raising the issue of ‘class’ and ‘mass’ in his speech in the Upper House, Singh said this government has made a provision of Rs 54,000 crore for Kisan Samman Nidhi.

“You are from Harvard University . You presented a total of nine Union Budgets in the past in the Parliament. Why did you not make provision of even a single rupee for farmers in your budgets?” Singh asked Chidambaram. The JD(U) leader further hailed Sitharaman for making a provision of Rs 54,000 crore for the Kisan Samman Nidhi.

“People in Bihar will be benefited more from this Budget because the state has large number of registered farmers. Moreover, the state will also be benefitted from the Arth-Ganga project which would prop up a sustainable development model through economic activities on both banks of river Ganga. All villages located on the banks of Ganga- right from Buxar to Kahalgaon—will be directly benefited from Arth-Ganga project,” Singh, who is also the JD(U) national general secretary (organization) told TOI soon after coming out of the Rajya Sabha.

