Trinamool calls upon their earlier demand to make Mamata Banerjee the chancellor of state universities. They are also indirectly demanding removal of Ananda Bose as chancellor. “The Governor is paying surprise visits to the universities without even informing the chief minister”, said state Education Minister Bratya Basu.
Kolkata, 16.04.2022: West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose and the state government are at loggerheads over Governor’s sudden visits to the universities, including the Presidency and the Calcutta University in the last few days and discussing National Education Policy (NEP).
Trinamool calls upon their earlier demand to make Mamata Banerjee the chancellor of state universities. They are also indirectly demanding removal of Ananda Bose as chancellor. “The Governor is paying surprise visits to the universities without even informing the chief minister”, said state Education Minister Bratya Basu.
The state government and the governor were sharing a cordial relation but everything changed after Bose visited Calcutta University, Presidency and Bankura University in a single week. Following the Governor’s visit to the universities, Bratya Basu said, “White elephant moving around”. Although Bose didn’t react to the Education Minister like Jagdeep Dhankar and told the media “Thank you for the information”.
In June 2022, West Bengal State Assembly passed a bill that approved a proposal for replacement of Jagdeep Dhankar, and Mamata Banerjee should become the chancellor of all the state run universities. The bill was not signed in the last ten months by the Governor.
Bratya Basu demanded that the Governor must sign the bill or return it. He also mentions that the Governor is not informing the CM and the Education department before visiting the universities.
“I am compelled to state that Raj Bhavan won’t be given control of the educational system. This government would not permit Raj Bhavan to act unilaterally on the subject of the autonomy of the state’s higher education institutions,” said Basu.
After Bose’s letter to vice-chancellors seeking weekly reports on the academic functioning of institutions and decisions on financial matters, the relationship between the two parties began to deteriorate.