Section of Bengal academics seek Prez intervention to end the crisis in state universities

kolkata: voicing concern on the state-of-affairs in several state universities in west bengal, a section of academics on friday wrote to president droupadi murmu seeking her intervention to end the "crisis" which, they claim, has been created due to certain steps taken by governor cv ananda bose.the west bengal educationists' forum, a body of around 20 former vcs and senior professors, in the letter to murmu said "a parallel administration" has been operating in the state universities due to steps by the raj bhavan "to directly administer public universities."the forum urged her to ensure that the governor becomes "respectful of the acts, statutes and rules" of the university.jadavpur university professor omprakash mishra said the governor has been appointed by the president and even if he has "special discretionary powers", he cannot overstep the well-defined limits as laid down by the constitution.citing an example, mishra, a former vc of north bengal university, said the governor is sitting on bills concerning universities' administrative and academic functioning despite the same having been passed by the state assembly. "he could have either signed the bill or rejected it. a governor has discretionary powers. but by not reacting, he is prolonging the stalemate," he said.mishra, who was accompanied by senior faculty members of different universities such as asutosh ghosh, ranjan chakrabarti and mira banerjee at a news conference in kolkata press club, said 31 state universities have none at the helm due to such action by the governor "who is at times appointing interim vcs and then asking them to resign," while people having no relations with academics are being appointed as vcs in some other state higher educational institutions."we request her (president) with folded hands, please intervene and stop the slide of our higher educational institutes. such activities are not congenial for research and other academic activities," he added."those not toeing his lines are being overlooked by the governor," he claimed.copy of the mail to murmu, which was released to the media, said, "the parallel administration in the universities has unleashed in bengal an era of unprecedented uncertainty, chaos and crises. it has cast a dark shadow over higher education in the state, jeopardising efficiency, effectiveness and credibility of the university management and leadership as well as future of lakhs of students...we understand that such whimsical and unilateral actions of the hon'ble chancellor are prompted by non-academic considerations."bose, who is also the chancellor, recently appointed senior teachers to look after the affairs of 15 state-run universities but four of them resigned from the posts of interim vcs.education minister bratya basu had said raj bhavan's decision has always been "unilateral" and "violative of the law". he had also urged the professors appointed as interim vcs not to take charge as asked by the governor creating an unprecedented situation.bose had, however, maintained that the steps to appoint interim vcs were well within his assigned powers and in the interest of smooth functioning of state universities.