Business
Standard, 10th July 2008
The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) —
for the first time since their inception — have begun
drafting plans to implement the quota for faculty members
from this year onwards, despite protests from the IIT student
community and opposition from some professors.
A
few IITs are calling a board meeting next week to discuss
the issue and chalk out a plan to this effect.
The
HRD ministry has, meanwhile, assured the country's premier
technical institutes that they can de-reserve the posts
after a year if vacant till then.
IITs,
according to a Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD)
directive, are expected to reserve 15 per cent quota for
SCs, 7.5 per cent for STs and 27 per cent for OBCs in faculty
positions.
However,
till date, they only have had reservations for backward
category candidates in administrative posts. They had not
implemented quotas in faculty positions till date for "lack
of a written directive", and neither had the HRD ministry
clamped on them so far. Sources in the HRD ministry, however,
allege that the IITs "skirted the issue till date".
The
ministry has now written to the IITs asking them to furnish
faculty data of the past three years. "We have given
the details to the MHRD. We did try recruiting SC/ST faculty
but could not do so as we could not find anyone with the
required qualification," explains an IIT Guwahati professor.
"IITs
always had quota for faculty. We, however, did not have
a written directive from the MHRD on this issue. Besides,
the clause that IITs can de-reserve the posts after a year,
helps us put the quota in place," says an IIT director
who did not wish to be named.
However,
the severe faculty shortage issue at IITs may not get solved
since "there being a dearth of quality faculty, the
faculty seats anyway go vacant at the IITs. By reserving
the seats for quota, it will not be much of a difference,"
said another IIT director. IIT Guwahati, for instance, had
invited applications from candidates for the SC/ST faculty
seats earlier.
It
shortlisted four candidates, but could not recruit any as
they did not match the qualification criteria.
Incidentally,
last week, the IIT directors met in New Delhi at the meeting
of the standing committee of the IIT council and requested
that they should be exempted from making reservations for
faculty like the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
(TIFR) and Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC).
Meanwhile,
the Supreme Court has issued a notice to the Centre and
the University Grants Commission (UGC) on a petition challenging
the policy of extending reservation for the OBCs to faculty
posts in the IITs, the Indian Institutes of Management,
Jawaharlal Nehru University and the All-India Institute
of Medical Sciences.
