Bengal: Interim VCs of varsities attend meeting of Union Edu minister

Several interim vice-chancellors of state universities, who were recently appointed by West Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose, attended a meeting convened by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday. The meeting was held at a hotel in the city, in the backdrop of a tussle between the Raj Bhavan and the TMC government in the state over the appointments of the officiating VCs.

The programme was part of a move to facilitate a discussion among the central minister, VCs and the authorities of universities to discuss academic issues, a BJP leader said.

''The meeting is nothing but an interaction with academicians and the stakeholders in the higher education system with an eye on its improvement,'' the BJP leader said.

Those who attended the meeting included West Bengal University of Teachers' Training, Education Planning and Administration VC Soma Banerjee, Calcutta University interim VC Santa Dutta, North Bengal University's interim VC Rathin Banerjee and Vidyasagar University's interim VC Susanta Chakraborty.

Notably, it was held a week after another meeting of registrars of 31 universities, convened by the state higher education department, was organised.

Only 12 registrars attended the state government's meeting while 19 others could not come due to ''threat from Raj Bhavan'', state Education Minister Bratya Basu had told reporters.

The governor recently appointed interim VCs of at least eight universities which remained headless after the expiry of the terms of the permanent VCs in April and May.