Bengal Governor visits Presidency University, talks to faculty, students

NEW DELHI: In his third visit to a state-run university this week, West Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose on Thursday went to Presidency University here and interacted with the faculty and students. The governor is also the Chancellor of all state-run universities. As Bose entered Presidency university at around noon, a rally by members of the Students Federation of India against NEP 2020, was going around the campus and he stopped for a while as the students continued their protests but no untoward incident took place, a university official said.

Bose headed to the chamber of Vice-Chancellor Anuradha Lohia but promised the students that he would meet them later on and listen to their views. During his meeting with Lohia, the two discussed infrastructure facilities at the university, upcoming projects, the academic atmosphere and its financial condition, the university official said.

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Bose, who also met members of the faculty at the Derozio hall, later met the left students and patiently listened to them and accepted their memorandum demanding that NEP 2020 be not rolled out in the higher educational institution, release in fund allocation to the university and three 'wards' (parts) of the old Eden Hindu Hostel building should be reopened after urgent repair. Presidency University SFI president Anandarupa Dhar said "we had staged protest when the governor entered and made known our opposition to NEP 2020. We had then demanded that he grant us an audience and the governor agreed.

Later on, after meeting teachers and the VC, he met the students as stakeholders of the institution. We handed over our memorandum to him listing our demands about non-implementation of NEP 2020 and issues related to the university... " Bose did not speak to waiting reporters during his stay for over two hours. A day back the governor had visited the West Bengal State University campus at Barasat, on the outskirts of the city. He had also visited the Calcutta University (CU) unannounced on Monday, beginning his visits to the state-run higher educational institutions.

At Barasat, he said after visit that "College principals are creators of the future and we need to depend on their inner strength to facilitate a change." At CU he had met principals of 145 affiliated colleges of dwelt on the salient features of the NEP speaking in favour of it. At Calcutta University, Bose had faced slogan shouting members of All India Democratic Students Organisation (AIDSO), a SUCI (Communist) students wing, who had similarly protested against the NEP 2020. Bose had later talked to the students. Asked about the Governor's surprise visits to universities,

Education Minister Bratya Basu told reporters: "The state will take the call on NEP and other policy decisions with regard to the running of the institutions. The honourable governor has nothing to do on the issue. The state will discuss with him as and when required. But, I don't have any clue about his current visits, which are personal."