A group of former vice chancellors lashed out at Raj Bhavan on Thursday for “systematically trying to dismantle Bengal’s higher education structure”, accusing Governor CV Ananda Bose of “deliberate inaction to stall search and selection processes” of administrative heads across state-run universities.
"The Educationists’ Forum", describing itself as apolitical but comprising members who belong to or are close to the ruling dispensation, demanded “immediate and proactive intervention’ from the state government to stop the situation spiraling out of control. Besides former VCs, the forum also comprises the current chiefs of the state College Service Commission, Primary Education and Joint Entrance Examination boards.
“Currently there are no vice chancellors in most of the 31 state universities in Bengal. In some of these universities, the Chancellor has hand-picked under qualified persons to exercise their lordship. The Calcutta High Court has said these people are neither VCs or even interim VCs. Under what law has the Chancellor delegated the power of the VCs to persons of his choice?” asked Om Prakash Mishra, former VC of North Bengal University and a Trinamul Congress leader, representing the forum.
“The Chancellor has not even bothered to depute professors in-charge with vice chancellor’s responsibilities in the newly created 11 universities of the state. The Presidency University has been without a VC for the past three months. The administrative and academic situations in Burdwan University, National Institute of Open Schooling and at the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology are dismal,” Mishra alleged.
The forum lashed out at the Governor for holding back his assent to Bills passed by the Bengal Assembly including the one which seeks to designate the Chief Minister as Chancellor of state-aided universities instead of the Governor and the one which spells out the details of the search and selection committees for appointment of vice chancellors. “The Governor had himself signed the Ordinance on search committees and when that was converted into a Bill, he is now refusing to sign it. How do you explain that?” Mishra said.
“Since none of the state Acts on administration and regulation of universities have been set aside by the High Court or the Supreme Court, in what capacity and under what provisions of law the Chancellor is denying and defying the legal provisions under these laws?” a statement from the forum read.
“Has the Governor assumed powers of the elected governments of the state? How come that the Governor’s secretariat is issuing directives to universities on matters related to leave and lien of teachers? Is the Governor’s secretariat the new Nabanna of West Bengal?” the statement went on to add.
Referring to a Supreme Court direction passed in April this year where the Bench reminded Governors of their Constitutional obligation to either give assent to a Bill or request reconsideration “as soon as possible”, the forum accused Governor Bose of deliberately dilly-dallying with the state’s Bills which remain in Raj Bhavan without being responded to.
The Bengal government has already moved Supreme Court challenging the Chancellor’s recent appointments and the top court, while continuing to hear the matter, has directed the petitioner to serve notices to Governor Bose and add him as party to the case so that he is able to formally address his side of the story.
Asked what proactive steps the forum expects from the state government, Mishra said: “The higher education department should immediately convene a meeting of Registrars and Finance Officers and regain administrative control over these universities. It should inform the court about the Chancellor’s actions and the lack thereof. The education minister should meet the Governor and straighten things out between the two sides so that the institutions don’t continue to suffer.”