State Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta said: “We are determined to begin these courses. We have nearly 400 such colleges, which impart education in arts, literature and science but for technical education a student has to pay hefty fee and approach engineering colleges located in the interior.” The minister was speaking on Wednesday at an education fair organised by Agoman, a SFI-backed NGO.

He referred to the MIT, where interdisciplinary courses go hand in hand, and criticised the segregation of the technical courses from other education streams in the country. “It amounts to exploitation, as certain students are segregated from the masses giving them an elite status,” he said.

“I have spoken to the UGC regarding this. They are not against it,” said the finance minister. Notably, while the UGC governs general degree colleges, the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) monitors technical education across the country, and all colleges have to follow its guidelines to start technical courses.

The minister said that if an institution could conduct an honours course in commerce and economics, why it couldn’t offer degree of Bachelors in Business Administration (BBA).

“We are coming up with a new university in Barasat with 57 colleges under it. We want to have courses like BBA in all the colleges,” Dasgupta said. State Higher Education Minister Sudarshan Roy Chowdhury had spoken on the same lines yesterday. “Presence of a Central body is thwarting the introduction of technical courses in a general degree college,” he said.