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This is an archive article published on July 30, 2014

Nayak and Goswami likely focus at IITM seminar today

The two-day seminar is an effort to promote scientific work and deliberations in Hindi.

After the recent CBI raid at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, all eyes are likely to be on IITM director B N Goswami and Shailesh Nayak, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) during the seminar on climate at IITM that begins on Wednesday.

Scientists who complain that the atmosphere at IITM has been “vitiated” after the CBI anti-corruption wing raid are likely to seek an audience with Nayak to urge him to put things in order.

IITM is organising a national seminar in Hindi on “Climate change and monsoon variability, prediction and climate services: a scientific approach,” at their Pashan campus on July 30-31. Scientists from across the country will be part of the gathering to discuss issues in Hindi. The two-day seminar is “an effort to promote scientific work and deliberations in Hindi.”

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Nayak will be the chief guest while Neeta Choudhary, Secretary, Department of Official Language, Ministry of Home Affairs, will be the guest of honour. The two-day seminar will deal with topics related to climate change.

After the CBI raid, IITM top brass maintained silence. Goswami remained out of bounds for the media. Nayak refused to promise anything about an immediate clean-up as demanded by scientists. He merely said once the CBI submits its report, they will initiate action. “Let CBI submit its report, we will act after that…” he had told The Indian Express recently.

Scientists wonder whether Nayak is serious about restoring IITM to its past glory. “If Nayak holds a closed-door meeting, we will reveal what has been going on at IITM for the past few years which has affected quality of research,” said a scientist, whose view was echoed by others.

Among their complaints are that civil and mechanical engineers have been given training in atmospheric science. Technicians have been made scientists, a draughtsman has become a scientist and in the latest, a scientist is to head the accounts department. “Besides, non-Maharashtrians have been given preference in recruitment,” allege scientists seeking a probe. Goswami is to retire on July 31.

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The CBI filed cases against three employees, including Chhabi Bardhan. The cases relate to corruption in recruitment. She allegedly functioned at the behest of IITM top brass. Bardhan has been on the run. Her anticipatory bail was rejected by the High Court.

(With inputs from NISHA NAMBIAR)

Sushant Kulkarni is a Special Correspondent with The Indian Express in Pune with 12+ years of experience covering issues related to Crime, Defence, Internal Security and Courts. He has been associated with the Indian Express since July 2010. Sushant has extensively reported on law and order issues of Pune and surrounding area, Cyber crime, narcotics trade and terrorism. His coverage in the Defence beat includes operational aspects of the three services, the defence research and development and issues related to key defence establishments. He has covered several sensitive cases in the courts at Pune. Sushant is an avid photographer, plays harmonica and loves cooking. ... Read More

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.   Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were  asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.     Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More


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