Undue political interference irks academicians

ACADEMICIANS ARE sore over flouting undue political interference in the matters of appointment of heads of technical institutions. They have apprised the members of the World Bank team about such interferences during their visit to technical institutes in the city.

They told the team that the state government was ignoring all the norms fixed by the All-India Engineering and Technology Council (AIETC) with respect to the appointment of director of any technical institute.

Citing an example of the appointment of the Director of the Government Central Institute of Textile (GCIT), the academicians alleged that the government not only appointed the most junior teacher as the director of the institute but it also ignored the basic qualifications required by a candidate to be appointed as the director of the institute.

They told that an unconfirmed teacher could not be appointed as director of
a technical institute under the existing norms of the AIETC.

But in this case the government waived the restriction and appointed a teacher who was yet to be confirmed on his post of lecturer. In addition to this he also lacked the specified period of service required for the appointment to the post, they alleged.

The World Bank team had come to evaluate the progress made by the technical institutes under the Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP) last week.

The team members reportedly gave a patience hearing to the grievances of the academicians and assured them to take up the matter at a suitable forum.

The team members also expressed their concern over such irregularities committed in the higher technical institutes and said this would deteriorate the educational standards and the credibility of the institutes.