KOLKATA: West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Saturday returned the bill making CM Mamata Banerjee the chancellor of state universities on the ground of "incompleteness of compliance". The bill, replacing the governor with the CM as chancellor, was passed in the state assembly on June 14.
A Raj Bhavan press release said the assembly secretariat - while sending the bills, including the one making the CM chancellor of state universities, for governor's consideration - indicated that the "complete official report" of the assembly debate would be forwarded as soon as it was ready.
The governor sent back the bills, commenting that sending "incomplete inputs" to him was "inappropriate", opening up yet another front of acrimony with the state government.
Dhankhar also seized the opportunity to justify his appointing Mahua Mukherjee as Rabindra Bharati University vice-chancellor. This move of the governor has sparked a controversy in the university administration and political circles.
Education minister Bratya Basu, in response to the RBU VC's appointment, said: "A detailed statement was issued on June 30 regarding re-examination of the matter/proposal by the state government in view of the bill passed in the assembly."
Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee and TMC general secretary Kunal Ghosh held that it was "not proper" for the governor/chancellor to have appointed the RBU VC after the House passed a bill making the CM the chancellor.
