North Bengal University council meeting

Siliguri, Feb. 26.TT: North Bengal University will hold its executive council meeting in the first week of March, almost a year after the last meeting was held.

The earlier meetings of the council were boycotted by some of the members of the statutory body as issues raised by them did not feature in the agenda.

“The gazette notification of the West Bengal University Laws (Amended Act) was issued by the state government on February 1 which is the final nod to the 13 state-aided varsities to form their decision-making bodies. Our varsity has already formed the EC with the nominated members and it will hold the meeting in the first week of March,” a varsity source said. The EC is a statutory body of the varsity that takes all administrative and academic decisions.

“It is a general practice to have the EC meeting once a month but we have not had any meeting in the past 11 months. There are more than 200 items that require the EC’s consent. Actions on several administrative and academic affairs are pending because they require the mandatory sanction of the EC. The meeting will be held with the nominated members as it will take time in electing the others,” the source said.

The council has 31 members of whom, 12 are elected and 19 nominated. The quorum is one-third of the total number.

Sugata Marjit, the chairman of the West Bengal Higher Education Council, said: “It is about time that the NBU holds its EC meeting because they (the meetings) have not taken place for a long time. I have advised the varsity officials to convene the meeting by first week of March.”