By Zaidul Haque, TwoCircles.net,
Kolkata: Aliah University will soon have new Vice-Chancellor. Dr. Abu Taleb Khan, Professor in the Department of Chemistry of IIT, Guwahati has been chosen as the new VC of the West Bengal’s first state minority university.
He will take charge from Dr. Syed Shamsul Alam, the first VC of the university, whose term is due to end and who too was an IIT Professor in the Department Mathematics of IIT Kharagpur.
Dr Abu Taleb Khan, New Vice Chancellor of Aliah University.
Source said that the Governor of West Bengal, M K Narayanan signed the paper on 26 June, 2013 to appoint Dr Abu Taleb Khan as new Vice Chancellor of Aliah University.
Dr Abu Taleb Khan, a renowned professor of Chemistry of IIT Guwahati got his Phd from Kalyani University of West Bengal in 1990 on `Studies in the phase-transfer catalysed alkylation and (3.4) sigmatrophic rearrangement’.
When TCN contacted Dr Khan, he informed that currently he is busy with a selection Committee meeting in Delhi, but confirmed that he “got the information.” On the exact date of taking charge, he said that he can decide only after reaching back home.
Aliah University has a rich heritage of being 229-year old educational and cultural institution, Mohammedan College of Calcutta, popularly known as Madrasah-i-Aliah or Calcutta Madrasah, the first educational institution set up in India in 1780 by Warren Hestings, the then Governor General of India. Thus, one of the oldest centers of higher learning and culture, the institution also had history. Many eminent scholars were associated with this institution as administrators, principals, teachers as well as students.
Calcutta Madrasah was upgraded to Calcutta Madrasah College and then to Aliah University by the Government of West Bengal through Aliah University Act XXVII of 2007 passed in West Bengal Legislative Assembly.
Now Aliah University now runs under the Department of Minority Affairs and Madrasa Development, Government of West Bengal.