Kolkata: The newly elected interim Vice-Chancellors (V-Cs) to 11 state universities met Governor/Chancellor CV Ananda Bose at Raj Bhavan on Friday and issued what is being termed as the ‘Calcutta Commitment’ promising to dedicate their efforts towards the growth and welfare of students.
Such a development comes at a time when another set of V-Cs, both former and incumbent, has sought intervention from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in what they termed as a “violation of rules by the Chancellor”. Their allegation is in tune with the state’s Education minister Bratya Basu’s opinion which sought to accuse the Chancellor of making the appointments without discussing it with the state Higher Education Department and is in alleged contravention of existing rules for making such appointments. The 11 appointed V-Cs met the Chancellor at Raj Bhavan and pledged to bring up university education in West Bengal as the best in India. They submitted to him a 15-point programme which include that their utmost priority will be the growth and welfare of students. The V-Cs pledged to keep factional and sectarian activities and politics off the campus. They promised to encourage through proactive steps, industry-academia interface and social outreach programs, implement the National Education Policy that has been accepted by the state government, and facilitate related infrastructural development along with faculty development.
The appointed V-Cs also promised to provide all facilities for the faculty improvement and welfare of teachers and devise ways and means of innovative methods for resource mobilisation for the universities. They also emphasised identifying, nurturing and promoting extra-curricular talent in the students and opening up vistas for the realisation of their talents to the fullest. The V-Cs concerned pledged to provide special care to and focus on the needs of vulnerable sections of students and devise innovative measures to help them seamlessly while identifying the best and the brightest and enlisting them in the ‘Governor’s Golden Group’. Other pledges included promoting the Bengali language, regional languages and local dialects, research in interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, state-of-the-art and cutting-edge research, and digital learning.
Meanwhile, other V-Cs opposed the appointments and alleged that the Chancellor has violated existing rules. According to them, as per existing WB College and University Administration Rules of 2019, all communications from the office of the Chancellor to the Vice-Chancellor or vice versa should be routed through the state Higher Education department. They also called the show-cause notices issued by the Raj Bhavan to the V-Cs who did not send the weekly report, a “violation of rules.”
In an issued statement they said: “It is extremely unfortunate however that while the state government is currently inclined to set the house in order and follow up on the relevant UGC guideline in the matter of appointment of V-Cs, the recent appointment of some interim V-Cs by the Chancellor in violation of the Act, Statute and Ordinances of the respective universities jeopardises higher education scenario in WB at the time of admission to the undergraduate courses and introduction of NEP.”
A professor of Gourbanga University’s Bengali department Dr Souren Banerjee has told Millennium Post that though he has received a letter asking him to join as the interim V-C of South Dinajpur University (SDU), he is unable to do so as there is no authority to release him from his position. He hasn’t got any intimation from the state Higher Education department. Hence, he said he cannot join and has supposedly conveyed the same to the Chancellor. The registrar of SDU, meanwhile, has confirmed that he has not received any intimation of a new V-C appointment.