Nair to lose IIT-Patna post

While we have not yet received the government orders8230; on barring of the four scientists from government positions/projects,we will be bound to take the requisite action as soon as the orders arrive, said highly placed sources in the HRD Ministry.

This will be the rarest of rare cases as the office of the Chairman BoG of any IIT or IIM is highly respected and seldom have any aspersions been cast on it.

A Bhaskarnarayana,former scientific secretary in ISRO; K R Sridharmurthi,former managing director of Antrix which is the marketing arm of ISRO; and K N Shankara,former director in ISROs satellite centre,are the others who have been barred,according to an order issued by the Department of Space on January 13.

Sridharmurthi also faces the prospects of being dropped from government posts he currently holds. He is member of the National GIS Interim Core Group constituted by the Planning Commission,a member of Karnataka State Innovation Council,member of the Board of Governors of National Design amp; Research Forum and also vice-president of the International Institute of Space Law from India.

Bhaskarnarayana currently serves as Pro Chancellor of Koneru Lakhsmaiah University,a deemed to be university that was incidentally found highly deficient and blacklisted by an HRD Ministry committee in 2010.

Shankara on the other hand is a nominated member of the Karnataka Science amp; Technology Academy set up by the Karnataka government under the Department of Science amp; Technology.

The Indian Express was the first to report the government order sent to all Secretaries of the Government of India and Chief Secretaries of states and Union Territories,directing that four former Officers of the Department of Space shall be excluded from re-employment,committee roles or any other important role under the government due to their role in the Antrix-Devas deal,in which a private company was accused to have been wrongfully allotted S-band frequencies for radio waves.

Further,the order said these former officers shall be divested of any current assignment/consultancy with the government with immediate effect.

Former President and acclaimed aerospace engineer A P J Abdul Kalam responding to questions in New Delhi,said,ISRO is bigger than any individual. The organisation will grow and succeed.

In his reaction,Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi said it was an interim order till the final report comes. The aggrieved party is entitled to challenge the said interim order. This is entirely for the government and for Madhavan to decide, he said.