St Xavier’s College, Calcutta, may have to wait longer for the state government to grant it autonomy

For some of the city’s prestigious under-graduate colleges, like Presidency, St Xavier’s and Asutosh, the wait for autonomy may get longer.

With the Lok Sabha elections round the corner, the state government has decided to remain silent on the issue. But the government’s silence has become a cause of concern for the University Grants Commission (UGC).

“The delay will deprive deserving colleges from getting a grant of Rs 1.76 crore, which the UGC has planned to sanction to each autonomous college in the country,” UGC vice-chairman V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai told Metro on Sunday.

At a meeting on February 26 in Delhi, the West Bengal government told the UGC that a final decision on the autonomy issue would be taken only if the UGC accepted its demand to modify some of the guidelines concerning the administrative and academic control of the autonomous colleges.

“The UGC’s policies are flexible and immediately after the February 26 meeting, we wrote to the state government asking it to go ahead with its modification proposals. But surprisingly, we have not received a word from the government till now,” vice-chairman Pillai added.

The UGC had set a February 26 deadline for all state governments to give their final opinions on the autonomy issue. A meeting with all state government representatives was convened in Delhi on that day for the purpose.

Though representatives of Calcutta University — to which the above colleges are affiliated — attended the meeting, they refused to take a decision, citing flaws in the UGC guidelines concerning administrative and academic functioning of the autonomous colleges.

The guidelines need to be modified if they are to be implemented in Bengal, they said.

Admitting receipt of the UGC letter, officials in the state higher education department said the government could not make a final decision on the issue at this stage — when the Lok Sabha election dates have been announced — because the concept of autonomous colleges was “very new” here.

As per the election commission rules, the state government cannot make any announcement concerning any major and new policy decision once the election dates are announced, the officials added.

Calcutta University pro vice-chancellor Suranjan Das said he was aware of the UGC nod. “The university Syndicate will meet after the Lok Sabha polls to identify the guidelines which the university seeks to modify,” Das added.

Sources said the government and the university were against the guidelines that insisted on having a large number of nominated members in the administrative bodies of the autonomous colleges.