Bengal Raj Bhavan to introduce parallel awards for outstanding students, educationists and researchers

Kolkata, June 30 The tussle between the Raj Bhavan and the West Bengal secretariat over the control of affairs in state universities may turn more murkier in the coming days with the Governor’s House deciding to introduce parallel awards on its behalf for outstanding educationists, students and researchers associated with these universities.

Governor C. V. Ananda Bose has decided three categories of awards on behalf of Raj Bhavan.

The first award of Rs 5,00,000 will be for 'Best Educationist' of the year, second award of Rs 2,00,000 will be for 'outstanding student of the year' and the third award of Rs 2,00,000 for 'Outstanding researcher of the year'.

Political observers feel that this development might open up another front between the Governor's House and the state secretariat, as traditionally the state education department had been the authority for announcing such awards in the education sector of the state.

However, the argument from the Raj Bhavan is that since the Governor, by virtue of his chair is also the chancellor of all state universities, he has the complete authority to announce any award on behalf of the education sector.

Sources said that the decision to confer such awards was taken at a meeting of the Governor with interim vice-chancellors of 10 state universities at the University of North Bengal at Siliguri in North Bengal on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, the Governor faced massive protests and was shown black flags by the Trinamool Chattra Parishad, the students’ wing of Trinamool Congress, after he arrived at the campus of the University of North Bengal .

The development took place the same day when a division bench, led by the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice T. S. Sivagnanam, had dismissed the public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the decision of the Governor to appoint interim vice-chancellors for 11 state universities without the concurrence of the state education department.

The division bench had also observed that the appointments of vice-chancellors in 11 state universities were 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 these vice-chancellors.