'Effort for improvement in education bears results'

West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Saturday said he looked forward to discuss the situation in universities with the state education minister after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee replied to his letter for talks.

Dhankhar also attached an image of the letter from the CMO and tweeted "efforts to ensure improvement in education scenario seem to be bearing results."

Banerjee had on December 26 replied to Dhankhar's offer for talks on state-aided universities saying "since the subject matter pertains to the Department of Education, I am forwarding the letter to Minister-in-Charge Education department Partha Chatterjee to discuss all the issues with you at a convenient time."

Stating that he was looking forward to a discussion (with the Education minister) about the situation in state-aided universities, the Governor posted on his twitter handle "The CM has responded....that Minister-in-charge Education will discuss all the issues. I look forward to this, in democracy we have to move in togetherness."

Quizzed by reporters, Chatterjee said on Saturday "We (the higher education department) will first give a detailed reply to some of his questions on the state universities. If he still has some more queries, we will take a call (about any further meeting) later on."

He also expressed surprise over how an official letter sent from the CMO to Raj Bhavan can be put in the public domain.

Dhankhar had frequent run-ins with the state government since his visit to Jadavpur University to 'rescue' union minister Babul Supriyo on September 19.

On December 24 the governor was prevented from entering the JU convocation by a section of employees of the university and was not allowed to attend its 'Court' meeting by agitating students the previous day.

After being debarred from attending the JU Annual Convocation, Dhankhar had alleged that there has been an effort backed by the state government to "usurp" the authority of the chancellor and "immobilise his functioning by non-state actors (protesters) in the front and state actors (state government) in the background".

These, he said, are indicative of a "massive" downslide in the education scenario in the state, he said.

He told reporters at Raj Bhavan on December 24 that he would like to meet the chief minister to discuss the situation in the universities.

The governor had also said that he had convened a meeting of all the vice-chancellors of the state universities and the education secretary to discuss the "serious situation" in the institutions.