Kolkata: West Bengal Governor C.V. Ananda Bose faced massive protests with the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad, the students’ wing of Trinamool Congress, waving black flags upon his arrival at the University of North Bengal at Siliguri in Darjeeling district on Wednesday.
This comes on day when adivision bench led by the Calcutta High Court’s Chief Justice T.S.Sivagnanam dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL)challenging the Governor’s decision to appoint interim vice chancellors for 11 state universities without the concurrence of the state education department.
Besides terming the appointments of vice-chancellors in 11 state universities “totally valid”, the bench also observed that it is the responsibility of the state government to pay the salaries, allowances and other financial entitlements to thesevice-chancellors.
The Governor was scheduled to have a meeting with these newly appointed interim vice-chancellors within the university campus. However, as soon as the Governor’s convoy reached the university campus, theTrinamool Chhatra Parishad activists started protesting, raising “Go-Back” slogans and sporting black flags. They also alleged that the governor can improve the academic standards in the state by passing the state education department and its representatives.
Tanay Majumdar, the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad president, alleged that the Governor was actually trying to vitiate the academic ambience of the state through his whimsical decisions. “He is acting as per his free will. So we protested today and showed him black flags. We want Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as the chancellor of the state universities. The Governor is acting more like a BJP leader,” he added.
The protesters claimed that they were protesting against the “illegal” appointments of the vice- chancellors bypassing the state education department. However, finally the Governor entered the campus and also attended the meeting as per schedule.
—IANS
Comments are closed.