Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday criticised the governor at a programme in Jhargram for appointing non-academics as officiating vice-chancellors of state-aided universities.
The governor is ex-officio chancellor of all state-aided universities.
The chief minister said in her address that if the governor has courage, he should sign the bill that seeks to appoint the chief minister as chancellor, replacing the governor.
“He does not accept our recommendations. He has appointed a person of his choice from Kerala as officiating VC. I have many friends in Kerala. But it has to be kept in mind that a person who has 10 years of experience as professor can be appointed as VC. He has appointed someone as VC (officiating VC) at Aliah University who was an IPS officer in Kerala. He is not connected with education,” the chief minister said.
Governor C.V. Ananda Bose had on July 21 entrusted M. Wahab, a retired IPS officer of the Kerala cadre, with performing the duties of vice-chancellor of Aliah University.
On July 5, he had entrusted a former Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court, Subhro Kamal Mukherjee, with performing the duties of VC of Rabindra Bharati University (RBU).
The Telegraph has reported that many academics criticised the governor for asking non-academics to helm universities.
The chief minister, who was speaking on the occasion of World Tribal Day, said: “We want to see if he (the governor) has courage, he should sign the bill that seeks to make the chief minister the chancellor…. We are expanding the number of universities and he is creating roadblocks…. We will not allow this.”
The Assembly had on June 13, 2022, passed a bill that seeks to install chief minister Mamata Banerjee as chancellor of state-aided universities, replacing the governor.
The bill was sent to then governor Jagdeep Dhankhar for his assent. But neither Dhankhar nor his successor La Ganeshan signed the bill.
Governor Bose, who succeeded La Ganeshan, has yet to sign the bill.
The chief minister said at the programme in Jhargram: “The governor must know that his is a constitutional post. He has to act within certain limitations as mandated by the Constitution.”