At last, the Union ministry of education has directed the VisvaBharati University (VBU) authorities today to remove those controversial plaques installed in heritage building sites during the tenure of former vice-chancellor Professor Bidyut Chakraborty.

The Union ministry has made it very clear that in the new plaques there will be no names of either the Prime Minister Narendra Modi or the vice-chancellor of VBU. The PM is also the chancellor of the varsity. In fact, the Centre has forwarded a written paragraph in English and the Bengali and Hindi translation of the paragraph will only be inscribed in the heritage plaques along with the name of its founder and date of journey.

Professor Bidyut Chakraborty retired on 7 November and from 8 November new acting VC of VBU Professor Sanjay Kumar Mallick took over charge. On September, Santiniketan had bagged the World Heritage Site tag from UNESCO. After which, the then vice-chancellor, Professor Chakraborty had installed plaques in several sites of heritage buildings in the campus bearing the names of chancellor Narendra Modi and VC Professor Bidyut Chakraborty himself.

Since the installation of the plaques, there has been huge controversy and Governor CV Ananda Bose and CM Mamata Banerjee both spoke against it. In fact, CM Mamata Banerjee had urged the Centre to include the name of founder Rabindranath Tagore in the heritage plaques. Governor Bose, who is also the rector of VBU, also urged the Centre to look into the controversial issue and take steps. Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari and BJP general secretary and former Bolpur MP Anupam Hazra also criticised the move by the former vice-chancellor.

Central education ministry has also formed a six-member committee, which includes four departmental heads (HoD) of the VBU and two members of executive council to supervise the entire installation programme, including proper checking of the translations. In the plaques, names of Rabindranath Tagore will only be inscribed as the founder of VBU and a brief history of the central varsity