Shahi: Anguished

Patna, July 13: Frustration and despair appear to have gripped the government in its continuing standoff with Raj Bhavan.

A day after deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi expressed hope that Governor Devanand Konwar would finally give his assent to half-a-dozen pending bills to facilitate the government’s efforts to improve higher education, human resource development minister P.K. Shahi vented his frustration and demanded a “public debate” on who was responsible for the present plight of higher education.

Earlier too, Shahi had expressed unhappiness over Raj Bhavan’s role.

“There should be a public debate on the state of higher education in Bihar as the people have the right to know where their hard-earned money is being spent. There is no improvement in higher education. Teachers’ posts in universities are vacant for years, there has been no improvement in college infrastructure and above all, university funds are plagued by cases of financial irregularities,” Shahi said.

Among the bills pending the governor’s nod are the Patna University Amendment Bill and Bihar State University Amendment Bill.

Shahi said the government wants to streamline higher education “but our powers are limited”.

The majority of universities in Bihar are functioning with acting vice-chancellors.

HRD minister Shahi said the post of acting vice-chancellors was created to deal with emergency situations. “It is surprising that for a term of three years of a regular VC of a university, one year goes with an acting VC,” he said.

On Tuesday, the HRD minister, for the second time, wrote to Governor Konwar, requesting him in his capacity as chancellor to make regular appointments of vice-chancellors in the larger interest of the state’s universities.

At present, eight out of ten universities in Bihar are running with ad-hoc VCs.

Shahi said: “The first time I had written a letter to the chancellor was in December before the term of the VCs of five universities expired in January. But the chancellor had stated that the issue of regular appointments of VCs would be taken up after the Assembly session in March.”

However, four months have passed since that Assembly session but no decision has been taken. The minister said the role of governor was like a guardian as he is the constitutional head of the state.

Raj Bhavan sources refuted the charges of ministers and pointed to “technical and constitutional flaws” in presenting of the bills.

“The governor’s office, on June 4 itself, had made its stand clear about one of the bills — the Bihar Administrative Tribunal Bill, 2011 — through a letter written to the law secretary of the state,” said a source.

The letter said: “A similar Bill had come earlier with the note of the law secretary stating specifically that Bihar Administrative Tribunal Bill, 2011, is a money bill hence, it requires the recommendation of the governor for placing it before Vidhan Sabha under Article 207 (1) and (3) of the constitution.”

A highly placed source at the Raj Bhavan told The Telegraph that the ministers appear to be issuing statements without verifying facts.

“The governor has withheld consent for two more bills — Bihar State University Commission Bill, 2011 and Bihar State School Teachers and Employees Dispute Redressal Tribunal Bill, 2011 — on the ground that these were money bills and his prior consent was not taken before introducing them in the Vidhan Sabha,” the source said.