The West Bengal University of Health Sciences (Amendment) Bill, 2022, which replaces the governor with the chief minister as the chancellor of the university, was passed in the state Assembly on Tuesday.
The Bill which will come into effect immediately, was passed by 134 votes for and 51 against, with the BJP opposing it.
The Bill which was introduced by Minister of State for Health, Chandrima Bhattacharya, was first passed by voice vote but later taken up for a vote by ballot at the insistence of the opposition BJP .
Taking part in the discussion on the bill, BJP chief whip in the Assembly, Manoj Tigga and other MLAs Agnimitra Paul, Makut Mani Adhikari, Shankar Ghosh and Ambika Roy spoke opposing the bill, while the ruling party's Nirmal Majhi, Madhusudan Bhattacharya, Saptorshi Banerjee spoke in support of it.
The state government had earlier this month decided to replace the Governor with the chief minister as chancellor of all state-run universities after a series of run-ins between Governor Jagdeep Dhankar and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee including over the Governor's calling vice chancellors for meetings, which the state government did not approve of.
The Tamil Nadu state assembly had last month curbed the Governor's powers in appointing vice-chancellors of state universities and given that role to the state government.
