Calcutta, Feb. 15: Presidency College will be granted autonomous status by July so that it can start working under the new structure from the academic session beginning this year, sources in the government said today.

A day after higher education minister Satyasadhan Chakraborty said Presidency will not seek autonomy at the moment, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said yesterday he will “personally intervene” to ensure that the college becomes autonomous at the earliest.

Officials today said the higher education department would soon direct the college authorities to submit a pro- posal to Calcutta University seeking autonomy.

Going by the rules, the university will seek the education department’s nod after receiving the proposal and, on getting it, will forward the proposal to the University Grants Commission (UGC).

“NAAC (the National Assessment and Accreditation Council) and the UGC have expressed opinion in favour of the autonomy. We are ready to act according to the state government’s directives,” Presidency principal Mamata Roy said.

Officials, however, cautioned that the government might wait till the Assembly elections ? likely to be over by May-end ? before making a final announcement for fear of antagonising the CPM-dominated West Bengal College and University Teachers’ Association. The teachers’ body, opposed to the autonomy, forms an important part of the CPM’s election machinery.

“We may have to wait till the completion of the Assembly elections for making the final announcement on Presidency’s autonomy. But all possible steps are being taken to ensure that the new autonomous structure gets implemented from the 2006-07 session,” an official said.

It is learnt that the government is preparing a new administrative structure based on UGC guidelines for St Xavier’s College, which is expected to get the new status soon.

The government wants the same structure at Presidency, sources said.

But before Presidency is granted autonomy, the government intends to equip the college to ensure smooth functioning. “The college will soon get at least 70 lecturers and nearly 20 senior teachers of the rank of professor. The process of recruiting them has started,” an official said.

In addition, a substantial portion of the Rs 4 crore that Bimal Jalan gave (as the Reserve Bank governor) will be released by the government in a few days for development of infrastructure and setting up a modern environmental science laboratory.

Despite opposition from the teachers’ lobby and a section of his party, the chief minister has been pursuing Presidency’s autonomy single-mindedly and granting money liberally. The government has provided the college about Rs 10 crore over the past few years.