Abhirup Sarkar to be state’s representative in committee

Educationist Abhirup Sarkar has been appointed as the state government’s representative in the search committee to find out the permanent Vice Chancellor of Calcutta University.

He will be appointed there in the place of former Vice Chancellor Suranjan Das. The present acting Vice Chancellor of the university is Ashutosh Ghosh.

Ghosh took the chair after the departure of Sugata Marjit from the post of University of Calcutta’s Vice-Chancellor.

Das, who is now the Vice-Chancellor of Jadavpur University has recently removed himself from 

the search committee. He was the state government’s representative there.

“Das removed himself from the committee. He is now the Vice-Chancellor of Jadavpur University. But he is also the enlisted professor of History, in University of Calcutta. So, technically, he cannot stay in the committee,” said state Education minister Partha Chatterjee.

“Many officers in the state education department do not know that Das is still associated with University of Calcutta. They made this mistake to include in the search committee,” said an education department source.

However, Sarkar said it is a challenge to him. His goal is to fulfill the work as soon as possible. “University of Calcutta has a great legacy. We studied here. It is actually a challenge to except this job. We’ll finish our work as soon as possible,” he said.

The other two nominees are Ved Prakash, Chairman of University Grants Commission (UGC) and Santanu Bhattacharya, Director of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science.

The three member search committee will propose the names to the higher education department in a sealed envelope which will be passed on to the Chancellor for his selection.