Guv overlooking West Bengal academics in proposed committee to shortlist for VC’s post: Minister

KOLKATA: West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu alleged that Governor C V Ananda Bose has not found a single academic from the state to be part of his proposed search committee for shortlisting candidates for vice chancellor's post.

The governor, apart from the state government and UGC has separately submitted lists of three to five names as members of the search committee to the Supreme Court as per the directive of the apex court on September 15.

Claiming the governor's list has overlooked the eminent academics of the state, the minister told reporters on the sidelines of a book fair event here on Thursday night, "The governor's intent is to have some puppets who will dance to his tunes as members of the search committee. He has followed the same process in appointing interim VCs earlier and even now."

"On the contrary, the state never discriminates against central higher educational institutions, prestigious educational bodies such as the Indian Statistical Institute. That is why in our search committee we have ìnçludèd an eminent academician of ISI," Basu added.

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Higher education department sources claimed the search committee sent by Raj Bhavan has one representative from West Bengal and that person is IIT Kharagpur Director.

"The rest of the proposed names are all outside Bengal," the sources confirmed. The state list contains names like former Rabindra Bharati University VC Sabyasachi Basu Roy Choudhury, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics retired professor Abhijit Chakraborty, ISI professor Abhirup Sarkar, etc, the sources said.

Confirming the names, Basu said "Yes we have not shown any bias to teachers of state or central organisations in our list. The Supreme Court division bench is expected to form the search committee after careful consideration of each list sent to it by three parties.

The state had earlier accused Raj Bhavan of sitting over the bill for forming a search committee to facilitate the appointment of VCs in 22 state universities but Raj Bhavan had maintained the state wanted to keep the ruling Trinamool Congress' hegemony in campuses for political reasons and not aimed at granting real autonomy to the institutions.