Education, Careers & Professional News
PM promises meeting on IIT faculty quota
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today publicly assured IIT Guwahati director Gautam Barua that he would personally discuss with cabinet colleagues the institutes’ demand for exemption from faculty quotas.
This is the first time that the Prime Minister, who is a Rajya Sabha MP from Assam, has hinted that he was open to a debate on the implementation of faculty quotas at premier educational institutions like the IITs.
Addressing students and faculty at IIT Guwahati today, the Prime Minister said he had taken note of “the point that Gautam Barua has made with regard to the reservation issue”.
“I (will) take that with me and bring it to the notice of my cabinet colleagues,” he said.
The Prime Minister’s assurance came after a meeting with Barua earlier in the day, when the director expressed concern over the impact on the quality of faculty if reservations are implemented for teachers, sources said.
The government had introduced 22.5 per cent reservation in jobs for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes following amendments to the Constitution in 1951.
Based on the recommendations of the controversial Mandal Commission report, the quota was extended by 27 per cent in the early nineties to cover the Other Backward Classes.
The Telegraph, on December 6, 2007, revealed that the IITs were not following the government’s reservation policy, claiming exemption that they were never granted.
Responding to a Right to Information query, the IITs admitted they had not received any exemption order from the HRD minister, which, officials said, was essential for not implementing reservations.
The IITs initially cited an office memorandum (No 9/2/73, dated 23/6/1975), claiming exemption. The office memorandum, issued by the department of personnel and training, allows for exemptions in scientific and technical institutions but clearly mentions that the orders of the HRD minister concerned are required.
An almost identical office memorandum dated 13/5/1994, was also cited by the IITs. But once again, the office memorandum made it clear that the minister’s order was needed.
On neither occasion was this exemption obtained from the HRD minister at the time.
Based on The Telegraph report, the Standing Committee of the IIT Council (SCIC) — the highest recommendatory body for the IITs — in February suggested that faculty quotas must be implemented.
Following the SCIC recommendation, the HRD ministry issued a fresh notification to the IITs, ordering them to implement reservations for teaching staff.
The IITs have, however, opposed the HRD ministry order, and at the SCIC meeting on July 3, formally sought exemption from the government’s job quota policy.
More : telegraphindia.com