Not following trend to oppose MHRD directives : Partha

West Bengal Education minister and senior TMC leader Partha Chatterjee today said the state was not "following any trend" of opposing MHRD directives and had implemented those it felt were "practicable".
Chatterjee was answering questions by newsmen who sought his comment on the West Bengal government recently asking the state-run institutes of higher education to ignore the Centre's directive on organising events to remember Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel on his birth anniversary.
"No, there had been no such trend (of opposing every directive of the MHRD). On a lot of issues we had said yes, issues which we felt were practicable," he said.

Iterating the state government's position on the Centre's directive on celebrating Sardar Patel's birth anniversary, he said "The state government believes in paying tribute to our national heroes. But why should the event be photographed and why has the copy to be forwarded to them (Centre)?
"This kind of instruction is unbecoming of a federal structure," Chatterjee, who is also the Trinamool Congress secretary general, said.
The Centre had declared October 31 as 'Rashtriya Ekta Diwas' (National Unity Day) to mark the birth anniversary of Patel and the Ministry of Human Resource and Development had directed all institutes of higher education in the country to conduct a Unity Run on October 31.

The Bengal government had earlier locked horns with the Centre over a MHRD directive on celebration of Independence Day in schools and Teachers Day.
On both occasions the state government had said it would ask the educational institutions to celebrate the two days in the way they had been doing over the years in a 'befitting manner'.