Trinamul man protects former VU V-C from charges of misappropriating cash

27 August 2012

biswabrata goswami  
MIDNAPORE, 27 AUG: The misappropriation of University Grants Commission funds by former Vidyasagar University Vice-Chancellor Swapan Kumar Pramanik was not discussed during the university’s executive council meeting on 23 August because a Trinamul Congress member shielded the Prof. Pramanik.
Mr Manab Mondol, principal of a Jhargram College and a Trinamul Congress spokesperson, opposed the term "misappropriation" used by the University Grants Commission (UGC) against Prof. Pramanik in the meeting and sought an explanation from Vice-Chancellor Ranjan Chakraborty. 
As a result, the matter was not discussed and Prof. Chakraborty promised to seek an explanation from the UGC. A university professor said: "It is surprising that Prof. Pramanik, who was close to the CPI-M brass, is now being shielded by a Trinamul Congress teacher."
The issue was on the agenda for the executive council meeting because the Vice-Chancellor recently received a letter from West Bengal State Council of Higher Education vice-chairman Abhijit Chakaborty, asking the V-C to form a two-member internal inquiry committee to investigate the matter. "The agenda item has been deferred to the next meeting for discussion," said Vidyasagar University registrar Ranajit Dhar. "The issue was taken as a table-item, but we could not discuss the matter in this meeting for some reason.” Mr Pramanik has been accused of misappropriating UGC funds to pay for his trip to a five-day conference in Beijing in 2004. The deputy secretary of the UGC, Mrs Archana Thakur, recently wrote a letter to the registrar of Vidyasagar University, asking him to explain the misappropriation, and to refund Rs 60,976 to the commission.
 In her letter, Mrs Thakur said the university disbursed Rs 60,976 to Prof. Pramanik, then the Vice-Chancellor of the university, for his trip to the 36th World Congress of Sociology, which was held 7-11 July 2004. This was a violation of the commission's guidelines, the letter said. For his Beijing tour, Prof. Pramanik not only used unassigned UGC funding, to which he was not entitled, but also flouted the norms for taking advances from public institutions. 
‘Kazi Nazrul U to start in 2014’
DURGAPUR, 27 AUG: Academic work at the proposed Kazi Nazrul Islam University in Asansol will start in the 2014 academic session, state higher education minister Bratya Basu said while inspecting the proposed site for the university in Asansol today.  Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had proposed the university during the birth anniversary celebration of rebel poet Kazi Nazrul Islam in May. The poet was born in 1899 in Churulia village in Asansol. The university has been proposed for the 31-acre lot occupied by a leprosy hospital established in 1940. At present, the hospital is under the supervision of the Asansol Mines Board of Health. Mr Basu, accompanied by minister of state for health Chandrima Bhattacharya, arrived at the hospital today. After inspecting it, Mrs Bhattacharya said: “The hospital will be shifted to Barakar to help set up the university.” sns