Calcutta, March 16: A standing committee of the Assembly has backed Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s commitment to fast-track Presidency College’s upgrade to a unitary university by recommending the bill’s passage during the ongoing budget session.

“The committee expects that the state government will complete all necessary formalities in time so that the proposed university can take off from the academic session 2010-2011,” the committee said in its report, tabled in the Assembly today.

The proposed Presidency University needs to come into being by June for first-year BA and BSc admissions to be opened for the 2010-11 academic session. Undergraduate academic sessions in Bengal, including those under Calcutta and Jadavpur universities, begin in July every year.

The government, therefore, has less than three months to complete the remaining formalities like initiating a debate on the bill in the House, seeing it through, issuing a gazette notification and then implementing it.

The nine-member standing committee, comprising representatives of the ruling Left Front as well as the Opposition, made minor changes to the draft bill and made a couple of recommendations before tabling it in the Assembly.

But the changes and suggestions — including addition of infrastructure and courses — might not be enough to please autonomy advocates looking at the big picture. “Our concern over whether the university will get the required freedom to attract the best of teaching brains from across the globe hasn’t been addressed,” said a Presidency teacher.

On recruitment, the standing committee merely observed that there should be no delay in appointing people to various posts.

Although there was officially no dissent within the standing committee, Trinamul Congress leader Partha Chatterjee and Congress Legislature Party chief Manas Bhuniya did criticise the government for “rushing through” the draft bill.

“We intend demanding that the business advisory committee of the House send the bill to a select committee. We would like experts to give their opinions on different aspects of the bill, including the clauses pertaining to government and political control,’’ said Bhuniya.

Chatterjee claimed that the standing committee spent too little time discussing the draft bill. “The committee had only two sittings, and it didn’t record dissenting opinions…What’s the hurry in passing the bill?” he asked.

The CPM-backed government college teachers’ association had also opposed the bill but the chief minister managed to rally the party around his decision to free Presidency from the shackles of government control.