Bengal Assembly Passes Bill To Make CM Chancellor Of State-Run Universities

Mumbai: The West Bengal Assembly on Monday passed a bill that sought to replace Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as the Chancellor of all state-run universities.

The West Bengal University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2022, was passed after 182 members voted in favour of the legislation and 40 against it in the 294-member Assembly. Introducing the bill, state education minister Bratya Basu said there was nothing wrong with the chief minister taking over as the chancellor.

“Why can’t the chief minister be the chancellor of state universities if the prime minister is the chancellor of a central university- Visva Bharati? You can go through the recommendations of the Punchhi commission. The governor, who is the present chancellor, has violated protocols on various occasions,” PTI quoted Basu as saying.

The development comes a week after the West Bengal cabinet cleared the proposal. However, the Bill needs to obtain assent from the Governor before it becomes an Act.

Earlier, Bratya Basu had said that if the governor refuses to pass the bill, the government will pass an ordinance to implement the law.

The BJP alleged that appointing the chief minister as chancellor would lead to “political interference” directly in the state’s higher education system.

BJP MLA Agnimitra Paul said in the assembly, “The state government wants to control everything. The decision to appoint the chief minister as the chancellor of universities is being taken to facilitate direct interference of the ruling party in the state’s education system.”

Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar had earlier called the move a deviant tactic by the TMC government to divert attention from the ongoing controversies in the state, including the CBI probe into recruitment irregularities in the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC).

The move comes in the backdrop of Governor Jadeep Dhankhar’s clash with the state government over the appointment of vice-chancellors in universities. Dhankhar had earlier alleged that vice-chancellors of 24 universities were “appointed illegally without the approval of the vice-chancellor”.

Last year, vice-chancellors of private universities added fuel to the fire at a meeting called by the governor at the Raj Bhavan.

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