On August 3, today, West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu said that Governor CV Ananda Bose should not hold back a crucial bill on replacing the chief minister with the governor as the chancellor of state universities and reach an early decision. “Either he can send the bill back to the state government for getting it passed again or forward it to the office of the president for her consideration. But he cannot hold back the bill for an indefinite period,” the state education minister said, as stated in a report by IANS.
Further, Basu also claimed that as per rules, the governor cannot hold back any bill for more than six months. “But in the case of this particular bill, almost a year has passed. He cannot hold back the bill further,” the state education minister added.
Additionally, he launched a scathing attack against the governor for the latter’s selection of interim vice-chancellors. “Retired army officers and retired cops are being appointed as interim vice-chancellors. We still believe in discussions. The people of the state are not habituated to such one-sided monologue,” the minister said.
His observation comes at a time when the governor has decided to set up an anti-corruption cell within the Raj Bhavan premises essentially to address the issues of corruption at the university-level education. His decision has attracted scathing criticisms from the ruling Trinamool Congress leadership, including Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, as stated in a report by IANS.
“The current governor is acting in a whimsical manner with regard to appointing vice-chancellors of state universities. He is appointing vice-chancellors from among people who are not connected to the academic world. We had differences of opinion with his predecessor Jagdeep Dhankhar. But he had never made arbitrary decisions like the present governor. As per norms, the state government will recommend three names for the post of vice-chancellor and he will select one from among them. But the current governor does not care about such norms,” the chief minister said on Wednesday, August 2.
