West Bengal cabinet approves proposal to make Mamata chancellor of state universities

KOLKATA: The West Bengal cabinet on Monday gave its approval to a proposal to make chief minister Mamata Banerjee chancellor of all state-run universities, replacing governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, an official said. It also gave its nod to another proposal to remove the governor from the post of the visitor to private universities and replace him with the state’s education minister.

“The cabinet gave its consent to make the chief minister the chancellor of all state-run universities, including agricultural and health varsities,” the official said. The proposal will be introduced as a bill in the assembly in the monsoon session starting June 10.

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The move to replace the governor with CM as the chancellor of state universities has evoked mixed response from educationists. According to certain academicians, the move is an infringement on the autonomy of the educational institutions, while others considered the action to be helpful in developing better coordination between university heads and the government.

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