IIT faculties attack Kharagpur Director for backing govt move

The war within IITs over the Centre's 'one-nation one-test' proposal escalated today with faculties of all IITs attacking director of Kharagpur, Damodar Acharya, for his support to the government's move.

In a statement, All India IIT Faculty Federation said that it was "shocked to learn that the Director, IIT Kharagapur has made public statements which are in contradiction to the resolutions made by the Senate of IIT Kharagpur."

Acharya had said yesterday that the institution does not have any objection to the Centre's move to conduct a common entrance exam for central engineering institutions.The Federation said that resolutions of the IIT Kharagpur Senate did not recommend inclusion of Class XII board marks, and conduct of JEE by a third party.

"IIT Kharagpur Senate categorically said that till 2014, no change should be made and status quo be maintained," it said.

Separately, faculty of the IIT-Khargpur also issued a statement rejecting the Centre's proposal for a Common Entrance Test into IITs, NITs and IIITs.

"The trust that IIT-JEE has earned over the last five decades is due to the continuous evolution of processes and unflinching devotion of the faculty and staff of IITs.... Any test leading to ranking in IIT admissions must be wholly owned by IITs," it said.

The fresh move by the Federation came a day after the directors of the Guwahati and Kharagpur IITs opposed IIT-Kanpur Senate's decision to conduct its own entrance exam from next year and backed the Centre's move.

Questioning the position taken by directors of two IITs, IIT-Delhi Alumni Association asked them to go with the Senates' decision.

"We want IIT Directors to go with the Senates' decision and not to give in to any pressure tactics of HRD Ministry," IIT Delhi Alumni president Somnath Bharti told PTI. 

Asking the directors not to take any step that will affect the interest of the prestigious institutes, Bharti said, "We hope that IIT directors will honour the will of Parliament by not siding with anybody who gives a go by to the decisions of their senate".

HRD Minister Kapil Sibal had on May 28 announced that from 2013, aspiring candidates for IITs and other central institutes like NITs and IIITs will have to sit under a new format of common entrance test, which will also take the plus two board results into consideration.

Sibal had claimed that it was approved without dissent at a council consisting of the IITs, the IIITs and the NITs.

Senate of the IIT-Kanpur has rejected the Centre's 'one-nation one-test' proposal and decided to conduct its own entrance exam from next year.

Hailing the IIT-Kanpur Senate's proposal, the Faculty Federation said, "Actions taken by the IIT Kanpur Senate should not be seen in isolation."

"Institutions of national importance as declared by our Parliament have specific roles in the overall growth of our economy, which ranges from providing world class technical manpower, networks of think tanks on various technological issues, and carrying out research in various cutting age areas," it said.

Noting that IITs are also actively engaged in providing trained manpower to other technical institutions in the country and IITs would continue to do so, it said, "It is expected that the government would continue to nurture excellence at all the levels including IITs, other centrally funded technical institutions and state colleges."

"Education being the state government subject need not be subjected to the tight central controls," it added.