Kolkata, Sep 4 (IANS): West Bengal Governor C. V. Ananda Bose on Monday announced the appointment of interim vice-chancellors for 16 state universities, which may lead to a fresh tussle between the Raj Bhawan and the state secretariat.

On September 1, the Governor House announced that he as the chancellor of the state universities will play the role of interim vice-chancellors for those state universities where the chairs of the functional heads are currently vacant.

Now, within 72 hours from that announcement, the governor announced the appointment of interim vice-chancellors for these 16 state universities that were running with its functional head for quite some time. These 16 universities include two agricultural universities and 14 universities for general studies.

The announcement of interim vice-chancellors for these 16 universities comes just a day after the Governor's House, on Sunday morning, issued notification virtually bringing down state government authority on state universities to zero.

In the notification, it was clearly said that the faculty and non-faculty staff members of all state universities are answerable first to the chancellor and then to the vice- chancellor. It was also stated there that the state government might give instructions to the state universities authorities, but those instructions are not binding on the universities authorities or employees.

Reacting to the Governor's decision to appoint interim vice- chancellors for the 16 state universities, State Women & Child Development and Social Welfare Minister Sashi Panja said that the Governor is trying to vitiate the rich academic ambience in the state by trying to run a parallel administration in the sector.

State BJP spokesman Samik Bhattacharya justified the decisions by the Governor and said that this was necessary to secure the autonomous nature of the universities free from political decisions imposed on them by the state government.