West Bengal Cabinet Proposal To Make CM The Chancellor Of Universities

The Monsoon session of West Bengal Legislative Assembly will begin from 10 June and six legislations will be tabled in the House to make Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Chancellor of all state-run universities.

State’s Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Partha Chatterjee on Monday (6 June) said that most of the bills to be tabled in this session are “The West Bengal University Laws (Amendment) Bill, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya (Amendment) Bill, The University of Animal and Fishery Sciences (Amendment) Bill, The West Bengal University of Health Science (Amendment) Bill,” among others.

Chatterjee said that details of the legislation and when they will be tabled will be announced at the Business Advisory Committee meeting on 9 June.

The West Bengal Cabinet on 26 May approved a resolution to appoint the Chief Minister as the Chancellor of all state universities. The post of Chancellor is usually held by state’s Governor.

The Trinamool Congress government has alleged interference by the Governor in the affairs of state universities. After 26 May, the state government at subsequent Cabinet meetings have decided that all private universities and even universities like Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, University of Animal and Fishery Sciences Bill, West Bengal University of Health Science will have Chief Minister as the Chancellor.

State’s Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on 29 May had said that he is not concerned about what the government does, unless a paper comes to him. Dhankhar had already given hints that he is not willing to allow the state government to enact the legislation as far as giving powers of Chancellor to the Chief Minister. Governor Jagdeep Dhankar is the ex-officio chancellor of 17 universities in the state.

“As and when it comes to me, I will take a call based on Constitutional provisions… I am surprised, a bill becomes an act when the Governor signs it and an ordinance is passed when the Governor signs it,” Dhankhar had said.

In another development, the state’s Cabinet on Monday gave its nod to Adani Enterprises for setting up a hyper-scale data centre at Bengal Silicon Valley in the New Town area on the outskirts of the city.

“The State cabinet today gave the nod to the proposal by Adani Enterprises to set up a 100 per cent hyper-scale data centre at Bengal Silicon Valley in New Town, Rajarhat. The project will come up on 51.75 acres of land, which has been given on a 99-year lease,” Chatterjee said.

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