Govt looking at 'wrong place' to find 'right' person: Cong's dig over vacancies in tech institutes

The Congress on Monday said over 50 institutes of national importance including seven IITs and 22 NITs are without chairpersons and alleged that the government is looking at the "wrong place" to find the "right" person.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the government has not filled up the vacancies even after many of the institutes have written to it.

He also reminded Prime Minister Narendra Modi about claims made of providing world-class futuristic education at these institutes even when basics were forgotten.

"Narendra Modi ji, 50 institutes of national importance are without chairpersons. 10 are vacant since the year your government came to power. Many institutes have written to the government, but to no avail. You speak about 'world-class futuristic education' but forget the 'basics'," Kharge said.

The Congress chief said this on Twitter while recalling that institutions without full-time chairpersons included seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), 22 National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and 20 Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs).

Congress leader P Chidambaram also alleged that 10 such institutes are without chairpersons for the last eight to nine years.

"The Modi government's commitment to excellence in higher education has been exposed. IIT (7), NIT (22) and IIIT (20) are without a full-time chairperson of the Board. In 10 institutes, no chairperson has been appointed for the last eight-nine years," he alleged.

"In a country with a population of 140 crores, the government cannot find 50 persons who can serve as chairperson of such an institute. I suspect the government is looking at the wrong place to find the 'right' person," Chidambaram said.

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had earlier told the Parliament in a written reply that 39 posts of chairman and directors are vacant at the IITs and the NITs.

Admitting that several posts of chairman at IITs and NITs are lying vacant, Pradhan had told the Lok Sabha that "the nomination and selection of chairman and other posts is a continuous process".