Kolkata, Jul 2 (PTI) West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Saturday took a dig at a spokesperson of the ruling Trinamool Congress accusing him of ignorance of the law in criticising him for appointing the new vice-chancellor of a state-run university.

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Dhankhar has triggered a storm on Thursday by naming the next vice-chancellor of Rabindra Bharati University (RBU), even as a bill nominating the chief minister as the chancellor of the state-run varsities replacing the governor awaits his mandatory nod.

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Asserting that he has returned the “incomplete” bill to the Assembly, the governor said he expects “maturity and propriety” from the ruling party and the government.

TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh, at whom Dhankhar pointed an accusing finger, hit back saying that the state needs a “matured and impartial” governor.

"It is of grave impropriety that the ruling party TMC spokesperson has made totally wrong statement as regards Governor/Chancellor making appointment of Vice-Chancellor of Rabindra Bharati University,” Dhankhar said in a Twitter post.

On Ghosh's contention that the governor should have taken the chief minister and the chief minister into confidence before making the announcement, Dhankhar said it “betrays ignorance of law as according to the enactments it is prerogative of the governor/chancellor to appoint vice-chancellors".

He said in a press statement shared on Twitter that as per the request of Education Minister Bratya Basu, he selected the first name from a list of three persons given to him by the government search committee as the vice-chancellor of RBU.

The governor appointed Mahua Mukherjee, professor in the department of dance of RBU, as its next vice-chancellor.

Dhankhar also said that no bills are pending with him as he returned them to the Assembly “on ground of incompleteness of compliance”.

Reacting to the governor's assertion, Ghosh said, “Elected MLAs of WB passed a bill replacing Hon'ble Governor with Hon'ble CM as Chancellor of State aided Universities at the Assembly - now it is completely unethical and undemocratic for the 'former Chancellor' to announce name of any VC.”

As the education minister is examining the matter, it is “futile” for the governor to issue a press statement, Ghosh tweeted.

Alleging that Dhankhar is “spreading confusion unilaterally”, he said: “Need a matured, impartial GUV.”

The Assembly passed a number of bills in June to replace the governor with the chief minister as the chancellor of all state-run universities and the education minister as the reader of private universities.

Dhankhar recently said that he will consider those bills without any “bias or prejudice”.

The tussle over the administration of state-run universities is the latest flashpoint between the Mamata Banerjee government and the governor, with the two sides having indulged in multiple feuds since 2019 when Dhankhar assumed charge in West Bengal.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)