nagpur :- Thirteen National Institutes of Technology and four central universities

Thirteen National Institutes of Technology and four central universities are headless, because the HRD ministry did not bother to start the recruitment on time.

The NITs at Allahabad, Bhopal, Kozhikode, Durgapur, Hamirpur, Jaipur, Jalandhar, Nagpur, Kurukshetra, Rourkela, Surat, Tiruchirappalli and Warangal do not have a regular director. The seniormost professors are holding charge.

Allahabad University, Mizoram University, Jammu Central University and the Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages (CIEFL) are without vice-chancellors.

The Jammu university, created through a central act last year, is unable to start operations for lack of a vice-chancellor.

Mohammad Miyan, the vice-chancellor of Maulana Azad National Urdu University, has been given additional charge of CIEFL. In the other institutions, the pro-vice-chancellors are holding charge.

“The officiating director, whose tenure will end after the appointment of the regular director, is not taking interest in the development matters of the institute. He is just managing the show,” a faculty member of NIT Tiruchirappalli said.

Director M. Chidambaram was suspended on September 8 for “misconduct” by the HRD ministry, which asked him to immediately join his parent institute IIT Madras.

The NIT Warangal director also was suspended over allegations of irregularities.

All the other vacancies were created when the term of the previous heads ended. Some of the institutes have been headless for over six months.

“This situation has arisen due to lack of planning on the part of the HRD ministry. The ministry should start the process of appointment of directors or vice-chancellors six months ahead of the end of tenure of the incumbent head. This is never done,” said M.N. Buch, the chairman of the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Gwalior.

The ministry has recently advertised the posts of the NIT directors. It has also set up search committees to select the vice-chancellors.

The recruitment process takes about six months before getting the final approval of the President.

Buch said the board of governors of each NIT should be empowered to recommend names for the post of director.

“If the boards are empowered to recommend names for the post of director, they will do it well in advance and such a situation may not arise. The power to recruit should remain with the government,” he said.