West Bengal Guv Dhankhar says Visva-Bharati VC's security withdrawn, administration denies

Amid the ongoing tussle over the fencing of Poush Mela ground, "withdrawal" of security cover to the vice-chancellor of Visva-Bharati has emerged as the latest flashpoint between the West Bengal government and Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar.

Security to the VC of the central university is provided by the Birbhum district administration. Dhankhar on Thursday urged Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to provide security to VC Bidyut Chakraborty, as he had been informed that his four personal body guards had been withdrawn.

An official of the district administration, however, denied that the VC's security was withdrawn, and said that "the personal security officers (PSO) were changed as they have been assigned there for a long time".

In a tweet, the governor said that Chakraborty informed him that "on 17/08, four body guards, stationed in VC office, were withdrawn. I find it inappropriate. Urged @MamataOfficial to take appropriate steps and provide security.

"We are replacing the security cover with new PSOs," a senior district police official said. The university authorities, however, said that there has been no official communication from the police in this regard.

Trouble had erupted at the Poush Mela ground on Monday when thousands of locals gathered at the Visva-Bharati campus after the fencing work began, vandalised construction equipment and tore down the main gate.

The university had on Tuesday demanded a CBI inquiry into the violence and deployment of central forces on the campus, while blaming a TMC MLA and some local ruling party leaders for the violence. The institute also said that it would remain closed until the perpetrators were brought to book.

The Enforce Directorate waded into the Visva-Bharati row on Wednesday, seeking copies of the FIRs filed by rival groups over Monday's violence to probe whether "organised money laundering" was the reason behind the affray.

The Trinamool Congress government condemned the violence but threw its weight behind the protesters.

The university authorities said that a fence around the Poush Mela venue was required to be built to honour an order of the National Green Tribunal, which had on November 1, 2017, said that a "barrier needs to be constructed to demarcate the Mela ground from the university and the locality".

Poush Mela is a handicraft, handloom, art and music festival held in the Bengali month of Poush, usually December-end. Rabindranath Tagore''s father Maharshi Debendranath Tagore first organised the fair in 1894 and Visva-Bharati, the university founded by the Nobel laureate, started organising it from 1951.

Visva-Bharati authorities have decided to scrap Poush Mela citing its "bitter experience" of the last two years in organising the winter carnival in Santiniketan amid a tussle with traders on making them comply with National Green Tribunal (NGT) guidelines, university sources said.

(Photo Credit: PTI)