State Education Minister urges Guv to sign Bill for setting up search panels for V-Cs in Varsities

PTI, Kolkata, Sep 15, 20223 : West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu on Friday urged Governor C V Ananda Bose to sign a Bill for paving the way to form search committees for appointing vice-chancellors in universities where the terms of VCs had expired with no permanent ones occupying the posts at present.

The minister’s request came amid a controversy over the appointment of officiating vice-chancellors by the governor who is also the chancellor of state universities.

Basu said, “We wish the search committees are formed by giving accordance to the role of the state government, by holding discussions with it as quickly as possible… It is unfathomable why the honourable governor is not signing the bill passed by the assembly in this regard.” Asked about the visit of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to the state since Thursday, Basu said it does not matter to West Bengal and its education system.

Basu had described the five VCs who attended a meeting of Pradhan on September 14 night as “slaves” who were “authorised” by the governor to meet a central minister belonging to the BJP.

The Trinamool Congress leader had also referred to the governor as “Bond” along the lines of the popular fictional secret agent James Bond. Pradhan described Basu’s comments as not befitting the stature of an education minister.

“I don’t know if he has the right to use such words against honorary figures like the governor and respectable persons like VCs. If a VC goes to meet a central minister to discuss academic issues, is there anything wrong in a democracy?” he said.

Asked by reporters, Basu said he did not think what he had said was wrong.

“It is my general comment on social media which I am entitled to in the capacity of a political person, and an individual, if not as a minister,” he said.

“If interim VCs, appointed by the governor, go to meet a union minister without informing the higher education department, it is apparent who had authorised them,” Basu added.

Notably, the meeting was held a week after another meeting of registrars of universities, convened by the state higher education department, was organised.

Only 12 registrars had attended that meeting while 19 others could not come due to a “threat from Raj Bhavan”, Basu had earlier said.

The governor recently appointed interim VCs of at least eight universities which remained headless after the expiry of the terms of the permanent VCs in April and May.