Bihar Governor Rajendra Arlekar: Bihar Governor Rajendra Arlekar on Tuesday (09 April) accused education department officials of obstructing the regularization of the academic session in universities across the state. The Governor-cum-Chancellor of Bihar made this comment while presiding over a meeting of Vice-Chancellors of state universities here. The biggest thing is that neither Additional Chief Secretary of the Education Department KK Pathak nor any other official attended this meeting.
The Governor said that it seems that the Bihar Education Department officials want to thwart all the efforts towards regularizing the academic sessions which have yielded positive results. This will return the education system to its old pathetic state. Proper coordination between the department and Raj Bhavan is necessary to improve the education scenario of the state.
According to a Raj Bhavan statement, the vice-chancellors said the department’s order freezing the banks accounts of universities has “affected the timely conduct of examinations and evaluation of answer sheets”. The department had last month ordered freezing of the bank accounts of most of the state universities after the failure of the respective vice-chancellors to attend the review meeting.
,No right to freeze accounts of universities,
The vice-chancellors informed the Governor, “The department has no right to order freezing of the accounts of universities. At the most he can recommend such action on the basis of which the Chancellor can pass appropriate orders.
The vice-chancellors also alleged before the Governor that the education department was running a campaign on social media, giving the impression that Raj Bhavan and the vice-chancellor were hindering the department’s efforts to improve higher education. Classes and examinations have been conducted regularly and on time during the last one year. The education department does not like this so it is creating obstacles. The Governor assured the Vice Chancellors that their concerns will be taken into consideration.