Kolkata: The West Bengal government on Saturday asked Jadavpur University not to go ahead with scheduled meeting of the Executive Council, the highest decision-making body of the varsity, which was supposed to pass the budget estimate on salary of the employees.
The West Bengal Higher Education Department asked the university not to hold the meeting scheduled to be held during the day as certain legal issues were involved.
Officiating Vice-Chancellor of JU, Buddhadeb Sau, said the EC meeting, which was called to decide on the annual budget of the state university, was important for issuing salary and other financial allocations to the staff.
“At the EC meeting, the budget would have been passed which would then be forwarded to the government for approval. Today’s EC meeting has been postponed. We wish it takes place as soon as possible,” he told PTI.
The development was preceded by Education Minister Bratya Basu voicing reservations about the legalities of the EC meeting at JU convened by the officiating VC whose appointment has not been ratified by the higher education department and the state mulling steps to approach the Supreme Court over the issue.
“So far I know, the higher education department has not been intimated about the decision to convene the meeting. I will again crosscheck. And if my information is true, we will take up the issue with the Supreme Court,” he told reporters at an event here earlier in the day.
Expressing concern over the development, the All Bengal University Teachers’ Association (ABUTA ) said an unprecedented crisis has been created as, according to the university statute, the budget estimate has to be passed by EC and then sent to the state for approval.
ABUTA’s JU Convenor Debabrata Bera demanded that the state must take appropriate steps to steer the university from the “unprecedented crisis.”
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