: The influence of the ruling party in West Bengal’s education sector was clearly felt here on Tuesday in two separate incidents — the postponement of State’s Joint Entrance Examination and the roughing up of senior officials of State university non-teaching staff owing allegiance to Trinamool Congress.
The examination of the West Bengal Joint Entrance Board, which was scheduled on April 18 and 19, was postponed to May 5 and 6 after the State government decided to hold municipal polls of the city civic body on April 18.
The State Election Commission had objected to a proposal sent by State government to hold civic polls on April 18, pointing out that the joint entrance examination was scheduled on the day.
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In a hurriedly called press conference on Tuesday, chairperson of State’s Joint Entrance Board Bhaskar Gupta told journalists that anticipating inconvenience to the students, the schedule of the examination has been revised.
He, however admitted that the State Election Commission is yet to announce the date for the civic body polls.
About 1.5 lakh students appear in the examination every year for admission to the engineering and medical colleges of the State.
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In the other incident, estate officer and admission committee chairperson of Kalyani University, located in Nadia district, were assaulted by non-teaching employees of the University having allegiance to the ruling party.
Those protesting who later resorted to violence were demanding the resignation of University’s Vice Chancellor Ratan Lal Hangloo.
One of the University officers assaulted sustained serious injuries and was hospitalised.
The agitators protested in front of the main gate of the VC’s office building from 11 a.m. in the morning and continued till evening.
The agitation was finally lifted in the evening. State Education Minister Partha Chatterjee is likely to visit the University on Wednesday.