Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday hit out at the Centre for not permitting Bihar to excavate its archives and bring before the world its ancient heritage.
Attacking the Ministry of Culture and its Minister Mahesh Sharma without taking name, he said the excavation work at Telhara in Nalanda district conducted by the State Government has been stopped by the Centre.
The CM said during the initial excavation at Telhara, the remains of a first century educational institution were found and it was reported to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). If it is fully excavated it will be a major revelation for the world because the ancient Nalanda University dated back to fifth century, he added. The ASI, he said, wanted a final report on Telhara which is not possible without full excavation. ASI itself has not submitted final report about the Nalanda ruins, he added.
Nitish said Bihar has a lot of old heritage sites which needed to be excavated to open new historical chapters. “But the ASI is neither interested in excavation nor allowing us to do it. When we started doing this after due permission the excavation work at Telhara was stopped. They are not interested to find the historical heritage but interested only to search jungle raj in Bihar,” the CM said.
Similarly, the CM said that remains in Raj Ballabh Garh in Madhubani district were supposed to be 2,000 years old but ASI despite requests did not take up it. He said he had also written to then PM about it but to no avail. He aid at any high level meeting he would take up this matter of national importance.