When the Directors of all N.I.Ts were ousted en masse, the senior most
professor had taken charge. I had indicated earlier that this Director in
charge was the person who relieved me from the Vigilance duty and appointed me
as Dean (PG and Research). It took
almost a year for the regular directors to be appointed in NITC. Meanwhile,
even though the In-charge director had limited powers, he could do many things
for the teaching and nonteaching staff within his limitations. In fact, he
could show that if a senior member of faculty
from the same institute is appointed as Director, many things could be done.
Importing a Director from some other institution is not absolutely essential
for solving the problems in the NITs.
Notifications for all 13 NITs appeared together and interviews were
being conducted. A few professors from NITC also had applied. Some of them had
even appeared for the interview. Many rumours were afloat about the auction
amount to be paid and the likely person to come as the new Director of NITC. I
heard that the Director ousted from NITC against whom as CVO, I had reported
some financial irregularities had also applied and was trying to get back here
itself. As we had already been on the collision course with him on these
matters, I wanted to know whether he is coming back to Calicut. Since I knew
the CVO in MHRD ( who was from Bihar IAS cadre, but a Keralite) personally
through earlier correspondence and had talked to him over phone, one day after
8 PM, I called him in his personal number and requested him whether the same
person against whom I had sent the allegations is coming back to Calicut. He
told me politely that he is not the person in charge of new appointments and
promised me he will find out from the Secretary concerned and call me back
after half an hour. True to his word, he called me back and stated that this
time a panel of four names are being prepared for each NITC and the particular
person is not in the panel chosen for NITC. I thanked him profusely as I was
relieved as I knew I will have difficult times if he returns. Later I came to
know that somehow, he managed to get
himself appointed as Director of NIT
Nagpur, in his own state.
The new director appointed in NITC was a former professor of physics
from NIT Warangal. It was a wonder how a professor of physics could become the
head of the institution of a national institute of technology. Remember,
this was the time, as per direction
from AICTE, a person without a
basic degree in engineering could not become the principal of an engineering
college under government or private
sector . Strange are the ways of the MHRD as many ‘wonderful’ things were
happening. Probably this was one among those wonders. When he took over, all
the Deans were ready to tender their resignations like the ministers change
when a new Chief Minister takes oath. However, as the term of the Deans were
not completed, he allowed the Deans to continue till the end of their
three-year term and requested for the cooperation from all of us.
As Dean, I had completed only one year which means I had two more years.
Throughout this period, I had the privilege
of full freedom in academic matters. It was with his full support that we
started the new MTech programmes in engineering and MSc(Tech) programmes in
science departments. All these courses were among the highly preferred ones by
applicants. Unfortunately, two BTech programmes started during his period ,
viz, Chemical Engineering and Engineering Physics were those among the lowest
preferred branches in NITC. In Kerala, Chemical Engineering was not popular as
this course was confined only to two or three engineering colleges and we
suggested to him that there may not be much demand for this branch among
Keralites. Engineering Physics course was his own brain child which was also
among the least preferred ones.
We had a difference of opinion only once. It was observed that the
majority of the students admitted to MTech in NITC with GATE ( Graduate
Aptitude Test in Engineering) score was from the native state of the director.
Obviously, this was because there were too many coaching centres for GATE in
that state and the students did well. In Kerala at that time there were very
few GATE coaching centres. Once, casually I suggested that in many I.I.Ts, GATE
score is used only as a cut off score for calling candidates for interview and
final selection was based on the performance in a written test and interview.
Immediately he was alerted and categorically stated that as GATE examination is
a national eligibility test and a change in the criterion for admission is not
at all required. Obviously, the reason was easily understood.
I was appointed as the Chairman of the Screening Committee for faculty
recruitment twice during his regime, probably because he wanted a senior person
who will follow the rules and regulations for appointments implicitly. I
accepted the offer as a recognition for my integrity and did the job sitting
with the other members of the screening committee for each department including
the Heads of the different departments and the Dean (UG). First time everything
went on smoothly, but second time he wanted a few persons from abroad who had
sent just an email to the Director requesting him to consider for appointment.
I was of the opinion that such persons cannot be considered unless they send a
completed application electronically along with scanned copies of degree
certificates. This was because any one could make a bio-data without
certificates and it will not be proper to call them for interview without
verifying their credentials. However, the director had high opinion of those
who were working in some universities abroad. I told him simply because someone
doing post-doctoral work or working in a foreign university does not necessarily mean that the person is of
high calibre. I have seen many
mediocre persons roaming around in some foreign universities. He was not very
happy with this stand taken by me as he was of the opinion that those from
abroad will not cheat and it is not proper to ask them for details. I tried to
convince him that there are enough fake degree holders even abroad and making
an electronic bio-data is the easiest thing in the world. But he wanted them to
be called for interview and I refused. Then he formed a special search
committee with his own ‘yes’ men / women exclusively for such candidates.
The idea
of creating a search committee
for appointments is often a clever way to push
candidates whom the bosses want.
I completed my work of screening of candidates who had produced copies of
certificates and did not take up any further work in screening or selection. It
seems he conducted an interview with video conferencing and selected a few such candidates.
Several construction works were going in the campus
during the reign of this director. Buildings for two BTech departments, a new
complex for the Science departments in the new campus etc were all in full
swing. A new library building was being set up on the far side of the Calicut
Mokkam road which was delayed for commissioning for a long time due to litigation
between the contractor and NITC. Construction work for a mega hostel with an
estimate of 30 crores or so and a Super mega hostel with nearly 60 crores were
initiated. This Director was in fact too good in bringing grant to the
institute for infrastructure development. Once in a while, he used to call me
for site inspection and all, but I used to find some excuse for not going with
him as I knew from my earlier exposure to CVO work that this is an area where
our hands can easily become dirty. Moreover, there was a Dean (Planning &
Development) to help him in such matters
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