In a fresh letter addressed to the state chief minister Mamata Banerjee, the Vice Chancellor of Visva Bharati University, Professor Bidyut Chakraborty, made a scathing attack on Miss Banerjee, which has created a huge stir here, as the TMC agitation on the plaque issue entered the third day today.

Urging the chief minister once again to return a road that has been the bone of contention between the state government and Visva Bharati university to the university’s control, the VC, in the third letter sent to CM on this issue, also brought up the arrests of top Trinamul Congress leaders by the Central agencies and also the Mohua Moitra issue.

The chief minister has urged the Centre yesterday, to put the name of Nobel laureate and founder of VBU, Rabindranath Tagore on the plaque installed by the university authorities at the Unesco World Heritage sites. Admitting that it was a mistake, the VBU vice chancellor said that new plaques will be installed soon.

He stated that it was the state CM’s duty to hand over the portion of the road under contention back to VBU so that it can restore the World Heritage site which he said has become very much congested in recent years. He has previously written similar letters to Miss Banerjee to hand over the road on 25 September and 30 September.

“You perhaps know that your sycophants preferred to keep you in the dark that the road which you took away from us just before the 2021 state assembly election was congested because of the haphazard parking of totos and also the presence of local vendors selling souvenirs.

We endeavoured hard to to keep the road free from congestion for two reasons: a) the ICOMOS ( International Council for monuments and Sites) which recommended Shantiniketan to be eligible for consideration for the World Heritage tag, in its report put this condition that Visva Bharati needs to to take control of this road passing through the Ahram; and the congestion was so bad that those who came to Shantiniketan as tourists and visitors confronted serious problems even to move around the place on foot.”

Meanwhile the TMC agitation on the issue continued for the third day today with top leaders like state minister Chandranath Singha, transport minister, Snehasish Chakraborty, MP Asit Mal, MLA Bikash Roy Choudhury etc present holding the photographs of Tagore to their chest in the podium.

TMC leader Gadadhar Hazra said that if the CM instructs them they will oust the VC from VBU and outside the district within an hour. Meanwhile, BJP general secretary and former MP Anupam Hazra today claimed that the tenure of VC Bidyut Chakraborty will end soon and he is trying desperately to get an extension.

“What he is doing is really damaging the image of the BJP and the world famous institution. Neither the PMO nor the Raj Bhavan supports such activities. Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore is our national pride and should be kept above politics,” he added.