Leading university teachers bodies in West Bengal on Sunday claimed that the recent letter by Governor C V Ananda Bose asking vice-chancellors to submit weekly reports to him on the functioning of the varsities will not help in addressing the real problems faced by them.
The missive of the governor who is the chancellor of all state-run universities has antagonised the Trinamool Congress government, with Education Minister Bratya Basu asserting that the order has no legal validity.
The teachers’ associations claimed that the tussle between the state government and Raj Bhavan is hampering the functioning of the universities, and it would be difficult for the chancellor to understand the situation as statutes of the varsities were not revised.
The letter, sent by a joint secretary-level officer of the Governor’s Secretariat on April 4, had said ”weekly activity report shall be submitted on the last working day of the week by email and any decision which has financial implications may be submitted for prior approval of the Hon’ble chancellor”.
All Bengal University Teacher’s Association (ABUTA) executive committee member Goutam Maity said the ”tendency” of the state government and Raj Bhavan to vest all powers in their hands will impede the academic functioning of the universities and ”political intervention” was not desirable from any side.
The directive for sending the weekly report and regular updates on important financial matters will only curtail the power of the VCs, he claimed.
”We don’t want intervention from either side which only threatens the autonomy of an academic institution. This is affecting the society and causing a stalemate in the functioning of higher educational institutions,” Maity said.
Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association (JUTA) General Secretary Partha Pratim Roy told PTI: ”We have nothing against the VCs being in regular touch with the Governor, who is the Chancellor of state universities, but we are pretty confused whether the weekly activity report will in effect serve any real purpose.” None of the universities has the chancellor’s nominee, while the statutes have not been revised, he said wondering: “How can he (Bose) arrive at any clear understanding about the functioning of universities?” He claimed that JUTA had sent four letters to the Chancellor drawing his attention to academic and administrative problems faced by the universities including JU but received no response from Raj Bhavan.
Education Minister Bratya Basu said on April 7 that the Governor’s missive without taking the state higher education department into confidence has “no legal validity”.
The letter was issued by the Governor without taking the government into confidence and he had no inkling about the letter before being told about it by VCs of some universities, Basu had claimed.
The developments come in the backdrop of the state government reversing its earlier decision to make the chief minister the chancellor of state universities during the tenure of Jagdeep Dhankhar when the state had objected to his alleged meddling in the autonomy of state varsities by his various ”unilateral” actions, including convening meetings with VCs and going against government recommended names as new vice-chancellors.
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