Former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee resigned from the governing body of a girls college in Bolpur today in protest against the authority's decision to allow 26 failed students sit for university examinations following interference by student union leaders from outside.
Purni Devi Chaudhuri Girls College, the only girls college in West Bengal's Birbhum district, was founded due to his initiative as the then MP of Bolpur in 2004 and it has no student union or association. The college is affiliated to the University of Burdwan.
"I do not think it is right and cannot support the college's action to allow failed students following political pressure. This is very shameful and a great threat to the future of education in our country," Chatterjee told PTI.
"Such incidents may happen elsewhere but I cannot put up with such an incident in the college with which I am associated from the very formation," he added.
College Principal Sunil Baran Mondal said the 26 first year students were detained as they could not secure pass marks in the test examination and did not have minimum required attendance.
"But last week, a group of outsiders, some of them probably from Bolpur College, came to our college and mounted pressure on me to allow those students to appear for the university examinations. Somnathbabu could not accept this decision of surrendering before pressure and tendered his resignation," he added.
