Scientists write to PM over appointment of ASRB chief

Agriculture scientists have opposed the central government's plan of appointing a bureaucrat as the chairman of the Agriculture Scientists Recruitment Board (ASRB) that recruits the scientific manpower for the Indian Council of Agriculture Research.

National Academy of Agriculture Sciences, Forum of Former Vice Chancellors of Karnataka State Universities and three former ASRB chairman independently wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the last two weeks seeking his intervention to reverse an agriculture ministry proposal to parachute a bureaucrat as the head of the panel that is always being headed by an eminent farm scientist since its inception in 1973-74.

The board is without a regular chairman for more than a year. One of the two posts of the members is also vacant since July 2017.

Instead of finding out suitable candidates for these posts, farm scientists claimed the centre was pushing a case of appointing a bureaucrat as the ASRB chairman, though such an idea has already been rejected by the ICAR governing council.

Last year, the ministry set up a committee under the chairmanship of R S Paroda, former director general of ICAR, to review the board's function and suggest means for the revamp. The Paroda committee, too, did not suggest such a measure. It only recommended increasing the number of ASRB members from two to three.

“The manner and speed in which the reported proposal was formulated and pursued by overlooking the recommendations of previous review committees and without consulting the scientific academies is a clear indication of some vested interest to malign the image of the board and also to destroy a well-established system. I urge to kindly intervene and stop or else it will demoralise the scientific community,” NAAS president and former ICAR chief Panjab Singh wrote in his letter to the prime minister.

Scientists claimed ASRB recruited more than 95,000 personnel in different categories so far, but it never lost a court case on its recommendations, suggesting the efficiency and fairness of the recruitment process.

“ASRB was created on the basis of a proved assumption that UPSC shall not be able to give justice to the selection of agriculture scientists. It is feared that by the induction of a bureaucrat, the body will lose its autonomy and there will be regular interference in the process of searching talent,” said C D Mayee, former ASRB chairman and former director of the Central Institute of Cotton Research, Nagpur.