RCP to govt: Set up IIHC near Nalanda University

PATNA: JD(U) MP Ram Chandra Prasad Singh on Monday demanded that the proposed Indian Institute of Heritage and Conservation (IIHC) should be set up in Bihar, preferably near Nalanda University in Rajgir.
Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech 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 archaeological sites of world fame,” the JD(U) leader in Rajya Sabha told TOI over phone from Delhi.
“If the proposed IIHC is set up near Nalanda University, its students, scholars and researchers will get benefits of two universities,” Singh said in the Rajya Sabha.
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 Rs54,000 crore for 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 benefited from the Arth-Ganga project which would prop up a sustainable development model through economic activities on the 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 told TOI.