Dhankhar calls virtual conference with VCs

West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, who is the chancellor of the state universities, Monday called a virtual conference with their vice-chancellors to discuss the education scenario of the state in the wake of Covid-19 situation. Dhankhar had called a meeting with VCs on January 15 at Raj Bhavan to discuss various academic issues but it fell through as none of them had turned up at the time.

The governor said in a statement on Monday "in the larger interest of the students and the education scenario in the state, it is thought expedient to have a virtual Conference with all the VCs immediately." "Principal Secretary, Higher Education department may be conveyed that both in my capacity as Governor and Chancellor, I would like to prioritise this Virtual Conference in the next seven days and steps in that direction may be taken at this end under intimation to this office," he said. Referrimg to the January meeting called by him, the governor said though its objective was to address issues concerning universities, welfare of students and taking affirmative steps "unfortunately, the stance of the Minister in Charge was judgmental in nature and to the contrary, that found no acceptance at my level." Dhankhar was apparently referring to Education Minister Partha Chatterjee who had said at that time the Governor should not cross his constitutional limits by summoning VCs this way.

The governor, who has had several run-ins with the state government since he took up office in July 2019 on a variety of issues, further said in his statement while "attention of the Honble CM to this aspect was invited" on the matter by him in January, "a response is still awaited." The governor said several representations have been made to him from students on the state of affairs "as regards issues that continue to be open-ended because of the COVID crisis." The ABVP, students wing of RSS, had submitted a memorndum to Dhankhar a few days ago expressing concern about the academic calendar, final semester exams in colleges and universities and inaccessibility of online classes to a large section of students in the COVID-19 situation..