Mita Mukherjee

West Bengal governor C V Ananda Bose made a surprise visit to Calcutta University on April 10, morning when the varsity vice-chancellor and registrar had not arrived and Bose visited the campus again a few hours later in the afternoon.

When the governor, who is the chancellor of all state-aided universities including the 166 year old Calcutta University, reached the College Street campus of the university in the morning after returning from Delhi, teachers, students and non-teaching staff were surprised but they greeted him with spontaneity. Senior officials including the vice-chancellor and the registrar reached the campus around 20 minutes after Bose arrived.

A chancellor visiting Calcutta or any other university twice in a day in this way has not happened in the recent history of the institution, according to many veterans. The governor’s visit surprised many also because the move came barely within a week after he sent a direction to all state universities to send weekly reports to Raj Bhavan on the overall administrative functioning of the universities including financial issues and recruitment matters. Senior officials of the university said that though the vice-chancellor and registrar were not present when he reached the campus, the governor did not take offence to this.

Later, in the evening Calcutta University vice-chancellor Ashis Chatterjee said the governor being the chancellor of the university, he could visit the campus whenever he wanted to. “ The governor is the chancellor of the university and so he can visit it. But he did not inquire about any financial issues today,” Chatterjee said.

During his first visit in the morning the governor, while interacting with teachers, students and staff who were present on the campus at that time, heard about their problems and grievances. When a girl student complained that the sanitary napkin vending machines were not functioning, the governor promised them that four new machines would be installed immediately.

He also interacted with teachers, deans and professors some of whom raised the issue of lack of adequate funds to attend the invitation received by them from various foreign and national institutes to deliver lectures and presentations. The governor gave them an assurance to sanction Rs five lakhs to help teachers get exposure in other national and international institutes.

After interacting with the teachers and students the governor left for Raj Bhavan, but he came back after a few hours and addressed a gathering of principals of colleges affiliated with the university who had gathered at the campus to discuss the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) particularly the challenges the colleges are likely to face in launching of the four-year undergraduate programme from 2023.

In his address to the college heads he spoke about various educational reforms commissions and explained the provisions of the NEP.

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