Kolkata, Jun 29 (IANS): West Bengal Governor C.V. Ananda Bose has constituted a special committee involving Vice-Chancellors (VCs) of multiple state universities that will identify and eliminate areas of corruption in the education sector.

Sources aware of the development said the proposal was mooted at a meeting between the Governor and interim VCs of 10 state universities at the University of North Bengal in Siliguri on Wednesday. The committee was constituted on Thursday.

Veterans in the academic circles of the state said that this is for the first time that any Governor, by virtue of being the Chancellor of state universities, has taken such an initiative to form a committee involving VCs of multiple universities.

Political observers feel that through the formation of this committee, the Governor is trying to show how serious he is about eradicating corruption from the education sector in the backdrop of the controversies over the multi-crore recruitment scam in state-run schools.

Besides the formation of the anti-corruption committee, the Governor has formed another committee involving VCs titled 'global outreach committee', whose task will be relating to communication with the globally-acclaimed universities and ensure exchange of faculty and academic excellence programmes.

For the purpose of promoting research-based curriculum in the state universities, a committee on 'academic excellence' has also been formed.