Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has invited teachers of all state-run and state-aided higher educational institutes for “Get Together” on November 5 to discuss matters concerning the implementation of Seventh Central Pay Commission recommendations.
The Bengal government’s invitation comes amid Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar’s desire to meet members of the Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association (JUTA) to discuss various issues.
The ‘Get Together’ will be held at the Netaji Indoor Stadium at 11am on Tuesday. An official letter has already been issued to all teachers’ associations by the Directorate of Public Instruction (Education Directorate), Prof (Dr) Jayasri Ray Chaudhuri.
“We are assuming that the Chief Minister may announce something on the lines of the revised UGC pay scale that day,” a member of JUTA said.
A party insider claimed that the state government is no mood to give Dhankar any space to raise issues related to Universities in Bengal amid a standoff between the Raj Bhawan and Nabanna.
The Governor had called the JUTA to schedule a meeting to discuss the latter’s demands, however, no date for it has been decided yet.
“I don’t know how the Governor will react to it the CM’s meeting with the teachers because it was him who initially wished to meet the JUTA. I think this is going to be another issue between the state government and the Governor. However, we are not at all bothered about this. We are only concerned about our demands,” another JUTA member and senior a Professor said.
The Professor added that the JUTA wants immediate implementation of the new paw scale and elected teachers’ representatives in the statutory bodies as per the University Act. “There are some issues regarding the central funding and eminence tag also,” he said.
During a court meeting at the Jadavpur University, Dhankar had advocated for the demand for the ‘Institute of Eminence’ tag and offered to resolve the issue within his limits.
The ruling TMC and the West Bengal Governor have been at loggerheads over disagreements on various issues.
On September 19, 2019, the Governor faced criticism from the Bengal government for intervening in the University matters and coming for the rescue of Bharatiya Janata Party MP Babul Supriyo who was met with strong protests by students of JU after he went there to attend an event organised by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.
Not the least, on September 24, Dhankhar had visited Siliguri to inaugurate the newly constructed building of the Indian Chamber of Commerce. At the event, he expressed his desire to interact with the district administration and the elected representatives of the Darjeeling district. However, most of them citing ‘unavoidable reasons’ stayed away from the meeting.
Dhankhar faced a similar situation at North and South 24 Pargana districts of Dhamakhali and in Sajnakhali respectively, where MLAs and MPs expressed their inability to attend his administrative meetings without the permission of the state government.
Recently, on October 11, the situation became bitter during Durga Puja carnival at Kolkata’s iconic Red Road after the Governor accused Banerjee of sidelining him at the event as he was allegedly not given enough footage across television channels.
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