West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said today that the Public Works Department (PWD) will take back control of a road near the Visva Bharati University's campus. The 2.9 km long road connects two campuses of the university -- Santiniketan and Sriniketan -- and the university authorities were given possession of it in 2017.
"There are many complaints from local people that they are not being allowed to use the road and it was causing inconvenience. So, the PWD will now take control of it," Ms Banerjee said at an administrative meeting at Bolpur in Birbhum district.
Around 3,000 locals reside in the area near the road which also runs past the houses of Nobel laureate Amartya Sen and painter Nandalal Bose.
Locals say the frequent closure of this road by university authorities causes problems as they are forced to take a roundabout bypass instead. Around 60 families had written to the chief minister in September complaining about the inconvenience and urging her government to take possession of the century-old heritage road as they fear that access to it might be blocked.
Mamata Banerjee's decision to hand it back to the PWD today comes amid her confrontation with university Vice Chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty over an event and her support for Amartya Sen over reports that he is on the Visva Bharati University's list of illegal plot holders.
Ms Banerjee's Trinamool party had recently accused the University authorities of not inviting the chief minister to its centenary celebration event attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
On Friday, the chief minister also came out in support of Mr Sen over his ancestral property at the Visva Bharati University's campus in Santineketan and in a letter addressed to him said some "nouveau invaders" are raising baseless allegations.
Ms Banerjee today said the BJP is out to destroy Bengal's greatest institutions and to attack Bengal's greatest icons.
The chief minister is scheduled to hold a roadshow down the main street of Bolpur tomorrow as part of her election outreach. Her roadshow comes around a week after BJP leader Amit Shah visited Bolpur and the university campus.
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