Visva Bharati University on Monday said a committee has been formed to finalise the new Bengali plaque in place of the earlier one on UNESCO recognition to Santiniketan as a heritage site.

The committee will also look through the already prepared Hindi and English texts of the new plaque to see that it is according to the instructions of the union education ministry, spokesperson of the central university, Mahua Banerjee said in an official statement.

She said the acting Vice-chancellor Sanjoy Kumar Mallick has been advised that the installation of the official text of the UNESCO statement recognizing Santiniketan as a heritage site is of "immediate priority" and the ministry was assured that the university has no intention for unnecessary delay in carrying out the work.

The ministry was informed that soon after the receipt of the draft statement, a committee was formed to finalise the Bengali version of the text of the plaque and to look through the texts for those in Hindi and English for parity of statement across the three languages as the university has no intention of any unnecessary delay, Banerjee said.

A controversy had erupted after three plaques installed in the wake of the September 17 UNESCO heritage status to Santiniketan, where Visva Bharati is located, did not mention the name of Rabindranath Tagore but carried the names of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is the chancellor of the central university and the then vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakraborty.

Visva Bharati was founded by the bard in Santiniketan, his favourite place.

Ashramites, students and those associated with the place, political parties like the Trinamool Congress and BJP had strongly criticised the move. The TMC staged a sit-in near the university campus after an outburst by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who gave the Visva Bharati a "deadline to start the process for fixing the anomalies." Mallick, she said, was invited to a recent meeting in Delhi where different issues including the one on plaque figured. He was also advised to expedite the procedure for the appointment of a regular VC and consider the matter as being of utmost priority.

"The ministry was informed that a single-agenda meeting of the Visva Bharati executive council has been announced and that permission has been sought from the chancellor, as per protocol, for a meeting of the samsad (Court), both necessary to initiate the process," the statement added.

The interim VC was also asked to ensure a "dignified and graceful exit" of the former VC Bidyut Chakraborty, whose tenure ended on November 8, Banerjee said in her statement.

Chakraborty's legal advisor had sent an e-mail on November 15 stating that the former VC requires to stay on at the official bungalow till November 30. "The university is examining this intimation as per rules," the statement added.

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