PATNA: The Bihar assembly on Tuesday passed a Bill to establish the first sports university of the state, where one-third of the seats will be reserved for women. All sports-related institutes, training centres and colleges of physical education in Bihar will be affiliated to this new university, which will be the country’s sixth such varsity.

While introducing the Bihar Sports University Bill, 2021 in the assembly, Art, Culture and Youth Department Minister Alok Ranjan said, “This is not just a Bill, but a dream of all those who wish to bring medals for the country.”

The proposed sports university would most probably be headquartered at Rajgir, he said.

“A minimum of 33.3 per cent of the seats would be reserved for women in this university. The reservation of seats will motivate more women towards sports and thus, their number would automatically be increased in the field of sports,” said the minister.

The Bill was later passed in the absence of opposition members.

Opposition MLAs staged a walkout on Tuesday pressing for the demand for a discussion on the manhandling of elected members by the police in the assembly during the earlier session a few months ago.

Three more Bills were introduced and passed in the House during the day.

The Bihar Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Bill, 2021, was passed to amend the law to increase the tenure of advisory committees in panchayats in the state.

“The state government will have the power to constitute advisory committees to run three-tier rural local bodies beyond the expiry of their five-year term until fresh elections,” Panchayati Raj Minister Samrat Choudhary said.

The amendment was required as the old Act had fixed the tenure of elected representatives to five years and it could not be extended.

Panchayat elections could not be held in the state on time because of the Covid-19 pandemic situation.

All the elected representatives in the panchayati raj institutions will continue in the advisory committees till fresh elections are held, the minister said.

Aryabhatta Knowledge University (Amendment) Bill, 2021, was passed to introduce subjects such as nanotechnology, river studies and climate change.

The assembly also passed the Bihar Health Sciences University Bill-2021.

Health Minister Mangal Pandey said that the university was required in view of the growing needs and rapid expansion in the field of medical education.