Bengal Education Minister Warns VCs Of Jail Over Alleged Past Graft

West Bengal Education Minister Jagannath Chattopadhyay said VCs could face jail if corruption is proven, as the BJP government pledged a corruption-free and politics-free higher education system.

West Bengal Education Minister Jagannath Chattopadhyay speaks on alleged corruption in the higher education sector.

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• Student union polls not immediate; merit-based teacher recruitment promised.

The BJP government in West Bengal sharpened its attack on the previous TMC dispensation over alleged corruption in the higher education sector, with minister Jagannath Chattopadhyay hinting that the arrest of one or more university vice-chancellors for alleged irregularities under the former regime would not be surprising.

Chattopadhyay on Tuesday said the state's immediate priority was to create a "corruption-free and politics-free" education system after what he described as decades of "political interference, culminating in widespread irregularities during the TMC's 15-year rule".

''You have already seen a former education minister go to jail. You have not yet seen university vice chancellors in jail. If in future you see one or two vice chancellors in Presidency, Dum Dum or Alipore (jails), there should be no reason to be surprised," Chattopadhyay, the higher education minister, said in an interview with news channel ABP Ananda.

Although the minister did not name any university or vice chancellor, his remarks were widely interpreted as signalling that the government expects investigations into alleged irregularities in higher educational institutions to widen beyond political executives.

The comments come against the backdrop of multiple recruitment and education-related corruption cases that have dominated Bengal's political landscape in recent years, including the arrest of former education minister Partha Chatterjee in the school jobs scam and investigations into alleged irregularities in appointments and university administration.

Seeking to outline the BJP government's education roadmap, Chattopadhyay said dismantling corruption and ending political influence in educational institutions were its foremost objectives.

"The first priority is a corruption-free education administration and a politics-free education system. Over the last 15 years, merit was systematically sacrificed, and corruption was cultivated at the cost of academic excellence," he alleged.

Broadening the attack, the minister argued that the politicisation of Bengal's education system had begun during the Left Front's 34-year rule but had, according to him, degenerated further under the TMC.

"The Left reduced excellence to mediocrity. Over the last 15 years, mediocrity gave way to the encouragement of non-merit, accompanied by corruption and criminalisation," he claimed.

Chattopadhyay also announced a sweeping review of private educational institutions that mushroomed during the previous government.

Alleging that pharmacy, B.Ed, ITI and polytechnic colleges had become "degree shops" under the guise of privatisation, he said the state would conduct a comprehensive audit and inspection of institutions established over the past 15 years before approving any new private institution.

He said Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari had already announced that no new approvals would be issued until such audits were completed.

On the politically sensitive issue of long-pending students' union elections, the minister indicated that the government was in no hurry to restore campus polls.

"Student elections can happen only if there are students on campuses," he said, arguing that the immediate challenge was to restore the academic appeal of state-run colleges and universities, many of which have witnessed falling enrolment in recent years.

Only after campuses regain adequate student strength, he said, would the government consider holding students' union elections.

The minister also promised transparent recruitment of teachers and researchers, asserting that appointments would no longer be influenced by political patronage or personal connections.

"A policy framework is being prepared. No political personality will have any role in higher education recruitment," he said, adding that the government would prioritise objective and merit-based selection processes. 

(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)