US denies visa to CSIR chief

The US has denied visa to the director-general of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), M O Garg, who was scheduled to attend a meeting of research councils from across the world a week ago.

On June 3, Garg submitted his biometric details along with necessary papers seeking visa for the Global Research Alliance (GRA) conference between June 17 and 19 at Columbus, Ohio.

But a week after the GRA conference concluded, Garg is yet to get the visa and his passport is still with the US Embassy, sources said. 

“Even today, the tracking number shows that the visa is under process. No reason was given for not granting the visa,” Garg told Deccan Herald.

Almost five months ago, Garg was appointed as the director-general of CSIR – a research council comprising 38 laboratories with a budget of Rs 4,031 crore. More than 9,000 scientific and technical staff work in the CSIR.

The veteran scientist, who is also the director of the Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun – one of the constituent laboratories of CSIR – has travelled to the US at least 14 times in the last four decades. 

In fact, out of 33 national and international patents that he holds, half a dozen are US patents and on more than one occasion he stayed in the US for months. It is not the first time that the US has triggered a visa row while considering applications from Indian academicians. 

In 2006, Govardhan Mehta, former director of the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, too, was denied a visa.