Joshi grabs architecture colleges

The architect community is up in arms over the transfer of the CoA8217;s responsibility over education to another statutory body, All India Council for Technical Education, which coordinates technical education of all branches engineering, management, architecture, pharmacy and vocational training.

What has added to the controversy is that the functions of a statutory body in existence since 1972 have been slashed not through a legislative amendment but by terminating an administrative arrangement that existed between the AICTE and CoA through a memorandum of understanding MOU.

Last weekend, the AICTE issued a public notice stating that it was terminating its MOU with the CoA and that it was consequently taking over all the functions regarding regulation of architecture colleges.

The notice spells out that the AICTE will hereafter decide whether a new architecture college can be set up, whether the approval granted to an existing college can be extended and whether the intake of students in a given college can be increased.

While it does not disclose any reason for the sudden change, the AICTE8217;s notice said that the decision was taken at its executive committee meeting on November 24.

The president of the CoA, P R Mehta, when contacted, attacked the AICTE saying: 8216;8216;The public notice does not befit the stature of a statutory body as it is attempting to belittle another statutory body.8217;8217;

Mehta also rebuts the AICTE8217;s claim that the withdrawal of the MOU would have any bearing on the functions entrusted to the CoA through an Act of Parliament passed in 1972.

8216;8216;The notice is misleading,8217;8217; he asserts, adding that the CoA8217;s responsibility of maintaining the standards of architectural education is akin to the Bar Council8217;s jurisdiction over legal education and the Medical Council8217;s over medical education.

The AICTE8217;s chairman, R Natarajan, was unavailable for comment.

The joint secretary in the ministry in charge of technical education, V S Pandey, denied that the Government was behind the turf war between the two statutory bodies. Pandey said this despite the fact that he was present at the November 24 executive committee meeting where the AICTE took the decision to take over the educational functions of the CoA.

Asked the reason for the decision, Pandey said, 8216;8216;This is between the two statutory bodies. The Government is not in the picture.8217;8217; He even said that the AICTE took the decision on its own 8216;8216;without any reference to the Government.8217;8217;