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IIT Rajasthan: Makeshift building, no funds
Rajasthan’s long-awaited entry into the league of IITians has come with a provisional certificate. Everything about the state chapter of the premiere tech institute that opens in the IIT Kanpur campus from this academic session is unconvincing. Its infrastructure is makeshift, the teachers would be ad-hoc appointees and the campus is on a short lease.
The Ministry of Human Resource and Development is yet to release funds for IIT Rajasthan, even when the new academic session is less than a month away. Registrar of IIT Kanpur, Sanjeev S Kashalkar made it clear that the administration was not going to draw upon the resources of the existing institute. Even the fund raised from students’ fee for Kanpur campus is not sufficient to maintain the standard of infrastructure required to run a premier engineering institution.
There are an additional 120 students of the Rajasthan campus who would have to be offered lodging and boarding facility, a fresh faculty and a new campus. “The arrival of funds from the
HRD ministry is pending so we are making temporary arrangements to house the IIT Rajasthan,” he told DNA. Rajasthan IIT students would not share the Kanpur campus.
They are converting vacant bungalows and staff quarters into “makeshift dormitories” for students. “We are hiring ad-hoc teachers before first semester,” an official of IIT Kanpur said. Initially 12 to 15 faculty members are being hired. In addition, the administration is converting available space into a library and computer science laboratory for students who enroll in Rajasthan IIT. They would have separate classes.
The registrar said the institution did not want to carry the burden of the Rajasthan IIT which would in time have it own administrative set up.
“We have galvanised the whole process of admissions to the new IIT in whatever measure we can,” he said.
Even the state government which had so enthusiastically pursued the Centre to bring IIT to Rajasthan is unwilling to own the IIT in its present form. Education minister, Kalicharan Saraf said he was surprised and displeased on the Centre’s decision to open the IIT Rajasthan in Kanpur. “Officially, we aren’t even aware that our IIT is opening in Kanpur; there has been no communication between the Centre and my department about the illogical arrangement,” he told DNA.
Where would have the state government accommodated the new IIT? Saraf said, the HRD ministry in Delhi was informed in advance about the identification of land and the city (Kota) in which it would be set up. “The least they could have done was to have allowed a temporary setup in Rajasthan itself than placing it in Kanpur” he said.
More : dnaindia.com