Bill passed in assembly
Kolkata: The Bengal assembly on Thursday passed a bill that would allow the state administration to transfer teaching and non-teaching staff across all 31 state universities. A special session of the assembly passed by a 171-15 majority the West Bengal Universities and Colleges (Administration and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026, ending the previous regime that recruited teaching and non-teaching staff for specific universities and did not have any mechanism for inter-university transfers.
Those using “anti-national words” could be transferred as punishment, he warned. The appointees have no such right,” he asserted, adding: “Universities receiving public money must have accountability. The existing university statutes contained provisions for transfer of college professors but there was no corresponding provision for university professors, creating a “legal vacuum” that necessitated this legislation, Adhikari said.
“Those who give appointments (the administration) retain the right to set conditions of appointment. The new rules would ensure a more balanced distribution of human resources, he reasoned.
We got this done before them,” Adhikari said. “Our experienced professors and non-teaching staff from eight established universities can now share their knowledge and expertise with newer institutions like Jhargram University, Cooch Behar Panchanan Barma University and Thakur Panchanan Barma University and help strengthen them,” Adhikari said. Adhikari also objected to the use of the word “saffronisation” to describe the state’s education policy. The Left had earlier followed ‘Anil-isation (referring to former CPM party secretary Anil Biswas’s influence over educational institutions) and the Trinamool Congress followed ‘Mamata-isation’,” he said.
Bengal was not the first to implement such a transfer policy, he added, noting similar provisions existed in states like Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. “A similar process has begun in Gujarat and Bihar. The new rules would take precedence over all previous rules, he added, assuring that the changed law would not impact Ph.D supervision or ongoing projects. “We will not do saffronisation.
State higher education minister Jagannath Chattopadhyay defended the bill, claiming that nine universities established during the Trinamool Congress regime did not have “even one permanent faculty”. “We are trying to use the expertise of stronger universities to uplift the weaker ones,” he said.