Dept of Science and Technology pulls out of 109th Science Congress, raises allegations of ‘misconduct’

In a notice issued by senior DST Secretary R N Upadhyay, dated September 25, the DST has levelled serious allegations on multiple grounds against the ISCA’s members and their functioning. The notice said, “Few office bearers of ISCA have been taking unilateral decisions without any authority or approval of the Government of India or General Body of the Council.”

The 109th edition of the ISC was originally meant to be hosted by Lucknow University (LU) on the theme ‘The Global Perspective on Science and Technology for a Sustainable Future’. However, last month, LU withdrew from the responsibility alleging differences between the ISCA and DST. A similar confusion existed while organising the 108th edition, the bid for which was won by Pune, however, it was annulled and the venue was later shifted to RTM University, Nagpur.

Reacting to the abrupt change of venue again, that too in less than four months before the actual science meet, the DST hit back in the notice and said, “Without the consent or any approval of the Government, information has been received that the venue of the Science Congress event has been shifted unilaterally to Lovely Professional University, Jalandhar, Punjab.”

The DST, which funds 24 autonomous institutions in the country including ISCA, further came down heavily on ISCA’s financial management. “A number of allegations regarding financial irregularities have been reported to DST. The Executive Secretary, ISCA, has been directed not to incur any expenditure from the Government Exchequer without the approval of Government of India. It has also been decided that DST support from all its resources for the forthcoming ISC event in 2024 will be discontinued,” the notice read.

The 113-year-old Kolkata-based ISCA today has 60,000 members. Some of ISCA’s illustrious former presidents have been eminent scientists namely Homi Bhabha, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar, PC Mahalanobis, PC Ray, Sir M Visvesvaraya, MGK Menon, UR Rao, Vasant Gowariker, Yash Pal, MS Swaminathan, K Kasturirangan, G Madhavan Nair, and RA Mashelkar among others. Its current general president is Arvind Kumar Saxena, former director, Institute of Basic Science, Bundelkhand University, Jhansi.