West Bengal: Edu Min Chatterjee says, govt will probe extortion by students' union members

West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee on Saturday said the state government would conduct an inquiry if it received any complaint about extortion by students' union members.

Asked to comment on reports of members of Trinamool Congress Students' Union being allegedly involved in extortion activities at Behala College, Chatterjee told reporters here, "If we get a specific complaint about any such malpractice, we will investigate."

A section of students had agitated at Behala College on Saturday, alleging that those having less than 60 per cent marks were asked to pay a large sum of money to some union members, for allowing them to sit for undergraduate examinations. "Under no circumstances, we will tolerate such act by anyone," the minister asserted. Pointing out that the college was under his assembly constituency, Chatterjee said he will summon the local councillor on Sunday to get an update about the incident.

"There had been no such incident in any college under my constituency in the past," he said. A spokesperson of Behala College, however, said that some students, unhappy over the implementation of the choice-based credit system (CBCS) in Calcutta University-affiliated undergraduate colleges, "created trouble" at the institution.

The spokesperson added that the college authorities had no information about students' union members being involved in any extortion activity.