A forum of university teachers and former vice-chancellors held a protest near the north gate of Raj Bhavan on Friday against the “killing of the higher education system by the governor”.
The governor is the ex-officio chancellor of state-aided universities.
The Educationists’ Forum held a short march carrying posters that said “Chancellor is not above the law” and “VCs have to be appointed in accordance with laws”.
Om Prakash Mishra, former interim VC of North Bengal University, addressed the gathering and said they were accusing the chancellor of killing the higher education system because he was not taking steps to appoint full-term VCs according to the well-laid-out search and selection procedure and continuing to appoint people unconnected to the education system as officiating VCs.
A letter the forum sent the chancellor after the protest said: “As governor of the state of West Bengal, you signed the ordinance to constitute Search-cum-Selection Committees for appointment of regular and full-term Vice-Chancellors and still you refuse to sign the Bill passed by the Legislative Assembly on the subject for the past three months. You possibly do not want to operationalise and act upon the legislation.”
Mishra, a professor at Jadavpur University said: “The bill was passed by the Assembly in mid-July. But the governor is not signing the bill that would enable universities to get full-term VCs with 10 years of professorship behind them, following UGC guidelines. Instead, he is appointing a retired judge here and a retired IPS officer there to disrupt the education system.”
“That is why we have accused him of killing the higher education system,” he said.
The letter said: “We are not afraid to maintain that your irregular and illegal action on the one hand and your splendid inaction on the other are designed to muzzle the progress of higher education of the state. You are killing the university system, its management and leadership.”
Calls, a text message and an email to chancellor C.V. Ananda Bose went unanswered.
Education minister Bratya Basu on Friday told a news conference at Bikash Bhavan, the headquarters of the education department, that the chancellor was not signing the bill because he was against engaging “academics” as VCs. “He would continue with his erratic appointments instead so he could damage the education system,” Basu said.
The search committee for the selection of full-term VCs has a nominee of the chief minister among its five members.
A case has been filed in the Calcutta High Court against the inclusion of the chief minister’s nominee.
When The Telegraph asked Basu if he thought the chancellor was sitting on the bill because of the court case, the minister said: “Then he has to inform us about this. He just simply can’t sit on it. We have sent him three communications since the passage of the bill.”