66. Dismissal of 11 NIT Directors by MHRD

 Newly  formed  N.I.T.s  were slowly   growing  out of the  infantile  deficiencies  to become strong full-fledged national  institutions  of higher learning  like I.I.Ts. In N.I.T. Calicut, developments  were  initially in the form of repair  of the old buildings.  Funds  for new  buildings  can be  obtained only for starting new courses. Naturally, starting new courses will take  more time in the  modified academic set up in the N.I.Ts and so  the  administration   embarked on a series  of cosmetic  changes  in the existing buildings as a  first step. Some of these   have been mentioned  in chapter 25  where I explored as  Chief Vigilance Officer of NITC.

 

Governance of the country  at  New  Delhi  changed  from the BJP led NDA  alliance to UPA alliance headed  by Indian National Congress. Minister  for  Human Resources  Development in UPA  government was  a stalwart from Bihar. There was a general complaint that most of the things UPA  government did in the first year was to undo many things that  NDA government had done. One such thing was to  change the Directors  of the  N.I.Ts appointed by  NDA. All the  Directors were  advised  to resign their posts and return to their parent departments  immediately. If they did not, they were  told they will be thrown out. Two of the  directors  returned  to their  original  institutions but  11  of them refused to  accept the  suggestion.

 

Then,  on a fine Thursday evening, it was announced in the All India  Radio  news that all the  Directors of N.I.Ts are  removed from their positions  forthwith and the Chairmen  of the  respective  Board of Governors have been asked  to see that  charge is handed over to the senior most professor in the respective  N.I.Ts. The reason stated was  just a technical one. When the  N.I.Ts were   formed by passing an act of the parliament, the newly created posts  of Directors  in N.I.Ts were  to be formally approved  by the  President  of India. Even though, this is usually  just a formality, it was  obvious that the  UPA government used  this technicality as a flimsy excuse  to oust the incumbent directors  of 11 of the N.I.Ts.

 

Director of N.I.T. Calicut  had other ideas. He took   the college  vehicle and along with the Asst Registrar proceeded to the High Court of Kerala at Ernakulam apparently for  some court case  involving the  institution. He came back late night and during Saturday and Sunday  hectically started  passing several bills for the construction work  in progress whether  it was completed or not. Meanwhile, someone alerted  me as CVO why he is not obeying the  orders  of the Government of India. I collected the  phone number  of the  Chairman, Board  of Governors  who was a retired  person living in Hyderabad and apprised him of the situation. He was  not aware  of such an order as  he did  not receive  the fax  message  on this matter. Apparently,  the fax message  to the Chairman was received  in the  office  of the Director, but was  not transmitted to the Chairman immediately for reasons known  only to the office. Ultimately, the Director  handed over charge  to the senior most professor  only on Monday morning after addressing a  visiting commission for  inspecting the facilities for a few post graduate  courses. Meanwhile the esteemed Director  had kept something special for me too.

 

On Sunday night, the   Confidential Assistant  to the Director  told me over phone that the outgoing Director wants to see me at 8 AM in the morning on Monday in his office. I told him as I am staying in the city and had to drop my daughter  in the  Medical College on the way, I will be able to reach the  campus only by about 830AM and will  meet  him as early as possible. However, when I reached the  campus, it was  845 AM. A visiting delegation of experts from outside  had  come  to inspect  the  facilities and logistics for a few proposed MTech courses was already  in the office  of the Director. I informed  the CA that I am in my office and asked  him to tell me when  the Director is free.  I was  waiting in my office  and in about 15 minutes, one  messenger  from the office of the  Director  delivered a sealed cover to me.  I opened  the cover  in which an anonymous  letter  was  enclosed. It was a complaint against “ Dr.K.P.Mohandas  who has  taken leave  in the  middle  of a semester, thus acting irresponsibly in his  duty  to the  students. Suitable punishment may be given to him”. I could  only  laugh  my heart out by  reading that message as the Director had also added an ‘order’ to me asking me to enquire and report  urgently to the Director. It was  true that  Dr.Mohandas, Professor, Electrical Engineering had  to  take medical leave for 4 weeks in the middle of the semester  because  of the surgical  procedure done on his eye due to the threatened retinal detachment and was advised   immediate  rest   for the period.  I had all the  valid official documents on the sanction of medical leave and  medical  reports on the same. Further, it was  known that a CVO is not required to take any action on an anonymous letter whether  it is related  to him or  another person.  Anyway, I sent a message   to the Director that as per  the standard operating procedure of CVC, no action need be taken on an anonymous letter. However,  I added , ‘as the  complaint is related to Dr.K.P Mohandas who happens to be the CVO  also, a formal enquiry will be conducted as soon as possible and  a report  sent to the Director as a very special case’.  

 

In short, it was obvious  that the esteemed Director  wanted to put on record a  complaint against me as  his revenge for my reporting the financial irregularities in the processing and finalization of tenders  for the construction to  CVO, MHRD. To add  insult to injury, he even forwarded a copy of the  anonymous  letter  to  MHRD as  if this will result in my dismissal from my job. I was  laughing  in my mind at seeing how mean and silly  people can become when they are blind with rage and personal vendetta.