In West Bengal, senior professors from a pro-Trinamool Congress platform as well as former vice-chancellors of state universities questioned Governor CV Ananda Bose about how professors who had less than 10 years of experience were being appointed as interim VCs. They also accused him of throttling higher education via his acts, as stated in a report by PTI. This happened today, Friday, September 8.
The Educationists' Forum penned an open letter to the Governor of West Bengal stating that there is no provision of law that allows the governor, who also essays the role of the chancellor of state universities, to delegate power to persons of choice in this respect.
"As governor of the state of West Bengal, you signed the ordinance to constitute the search-cum-selection committees for appointment of regular and full-term VCs and still you refuse to sign the Bill passed by the legislative assembly on the subject for the past three months," stated the letter.
"You possibly do not want to operationalise and act upon the legislation. We expect that you do know about the provisions of our constitution. Article 200 stipulates that the governor cannot sit indefinitely over the Bills passed by the assembly and he must act as soon as possible," the letter signed by former VC Om Prakash Mishra and several others said.
"Is it not a fact that most of the persons 'appointed' by you do not fulfill the criterion of being a professor with more than 10 years experience in the university system — as stipulated under the UGC regulations? Why are you violating the UGC regulations," the open letter submitted to the governor's office said.
"You are killing the university system, its management and leadership," the forum said.
Before submitting the letter, an over 400-member strong protest march was organised which included former state university VCs Debnarayan Bandyopadhyay, Dipak Kar and Mishra as well as senior professor Abheek Majumdar, poet Subodh Sarkar and college and university teachers.
The participants carried placards against the "complete chaos unleashed by the governor", who is the ex officio chancellor of the state universities.
