Kolkata: A crucial education-related bill will be moved and passed in the West Bengal Assembly at a single-day special session Thursday.
The West Bengal Universities & Colleges Administration & Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2026 is aimed at implementing the “one state, one education” policy in the state.
The bill was cleared by the state cabinet. After it is moved and passed in the House, it will be sent to the office of Governor R.N. Ravi for consent, following which it will become an Act.
Explaining the major proposals in the bill, an official from the state higher education department said it will specify the guidelines related to the transfers of teachers and non-teaching staff in different state-run universities.
“The bill proposes to transfer those who have taught for a long time in old state-run universities in Kolkata or other big cities to new universities henceforth. This policy is also effective for educational workers attached to different state-run universities,” said a state higher education department official.
Academicians in the state feel this proposal can create major controversies in the state’s academic circles. “The state-run universities are basically autonomous bodies. Hence, teachers, officials or education workers of the state-run universities are not directly state government employees. So naturally, questions are being raised whether this transfer will be by mutual consent or whether teachers and education workers will be transferred at the will of the government. However, all these things will be clarified only after the bill is moved and passed on the floor of the Assembly,” said a professor of Jadavpur University, who did not wish to be named.
Another important proposal in the bill is to bring Aliah University under the West Bengal Higher Education Department, the official said.
Till now, the Aliah University had been under the jurisdiction of the West Bengal Minority Affairs &Madrasah Education Department. The Aliah University Act was passed in the West Bengal Assembly during the late Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee-led Left Front regime in 2007. It came into effect from April 5, 2008.
The administration has claimed that the bill aims at bringing a balanced distribution of human resources as the reason for this move.
Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari has claimed that the state’s old and traditional universities have teachers and administrative staff with long-standing experience which needs to be utilised.
“There is a need to utilise that experience in the new universities. If skilled professors and staff go to the new institutions, the quality of teaching, research and administrative infrastructure there will improve rapidly. This initiative is being taken to maintain the overall balance of higher education,” the Chief Minister said.
