Tiff between Guv & Govt over Pro-VCs selection in Bengal

| | Kolkata
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Tiff between Guv & Govt over Pro-VCs selection in Bengal

Wednesday, 03 June 2020 | Saugar Sengupta | Kolkata

The continuing discord between the Mamata Banerjee Government and Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar has finally boiled down even to the appointment of a Pro-Vice Chancellor.

Some extravagant interpretation of mutual jurisdictions by the Governor’s office and the Education Ministry triggered a unique administrative crisis in Burdwan University when the State Government on June 2 countered the Governor’s order appointing Gautam Chandra as the Pro-Vice Chancellor of the prestigious institution by nominating a rival Professor Ashis Panigrahi to the same post.

Though none of the two appointees would mince words Education Minister Partho Chatterjee said slammed the Raj Bhavan for “trying to encroach upon the jurisdiction of the State Government,” reminding the Governor had no right to take a decision independent of the State Government.

“It is the prerogative of the State Government to appoint a V-C or a Pro-V-C as the Government pays the salary and not the Governor’s House,” he said accusing the Governor of “trying to play saffron politics more than the BJP does. His single-point agenda is to appoint BJP persons on the top posts of various departments so to further the interests of the party he has been batting for.”

Earlier the Governor’s House on June 1, appointed Professor Chandra the Head of the Department of Zoology in the same University issuing the Governor’s communiqué read: “In exercise of the power conferred by sub-section (1) of section 9A of the Burdwan University Act, 1981 (as amended) I, the Chancellor of the University of Burdwan appoint Professor Goutam Chandra.....as Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Administration & Academic)....for a period of four years or up to the age of 65 years or until further order, whichever is earlier.”

Within hours of the Governor taking the sudden decision “not in consultation with the State Government,” the Higher Education Department on Monday night, appointed Ashis Panigrahi, Zoology professor of Kalyani University, as the Pro-VC (academic) of the University, sources in the Department said.

When contacted a senior advocate and a Trinamool Congress leader on Tuesday said that the “Governor cannot act arbitrarily and without consulting the State Government. If he does so his decision may be challenged through a writ being filed by the other party.

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