Government defers proposed education bill

Kolkata: The Education Bill, scheduled to be placed in the West Bengal Assembly on Friday, was deferred at the last minute after the Congress and the Left Front dubbed it as “anti-people”, although the government said the bill was deferred only to allow more time to the Opposition to study it.

State education minister Partha Chatterjee told reporters that The West Bengal Universities and Colleges (administration and Regulation) Bill, 2016 would be introduced later in order to give more time to the Opposition to go through it.

He said the bill would be placed later in the same spirit and pointed out that there were a few printing mistakes in it.

The bill was withheld following chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s intervention as she expressed her displeasure over the bill’s contents. Mr Chatterjee, while informing the House that the bill has been deferred, said, “MLAs of the Congress and Left Front in the Opposition as well as from our party said they should be given more time to go through the bill’s contents as it was brought in a haste. This is why the bill is being deferred. Around 25 amendments were submitted. Other MLAs advised that the bill be sent to the Assembly select committee.”

Mr Chatterjee mentioned, “Also I do not think that the bill’s contents match with the draft which was earlier prepared and sent by the government.”

Before the bill was tabled, the Opposition parties alleged that it would empower the government to take total control of the government-aided colleges and universities - from the appointment/transfer of professors and fixing their salaries to student unions’ elections.

Leader of Opposition Abdul Mannan described the bill as “anti-people. Apart from this, there are a lot of discrepancies in the bill, he claimed.

Later, Mr Mannan lauded when Mr Chatterjee deferred the bill. “We welcome his decision and thank him for it. I and Sujan Chakraborty (Left Front Legislature Party leader) earlier raised our concerns to him about the bill’s contents. Better late than never.” He also attributed it as “a victory of the common people for whom we had opposed the bill”. “Mr Chatterjee must have consulted the CM and took the right decision,” he said. Mr Chakraborty said that the government had to backtrack in the face of public pressure.

A senior TMC leader on condition of anonymity said, “There are some reservations regarding the bill and chief minister Mamata Banerjee was informed about it”.