Protest intensifies,govt moves to decide on IIT-Kharagpur director

With students,faculty and alumni stepping up protests against delay in the appointment of Prof Partha Pratim Chakrabarti as director of IIT Kharagpur

With students,faculty and alumni stepping up protests against delay in the appointment of Prof Partha Pratim Chakrabarti as director of IIT Kharagpur,pending the Central Vigilance Commissions CVC approval,and threatening to move court,the government is moving to resolve the issue.

Sources said that the CVC,nudged by the human resource development ministry,will decide on Chakrabartis appointment in the next few days.

The ministrys selection committee recommended Chakrabarti for the post in July 2012 but his appointment ran into trouble with the Vigilance. The CVC sought action against him,prof R N Banerjee and IIT Patna director A K Bhowmick for their role in the coal-net scam,involving computerisation of Coal India and its subsidiaries between 2001 and 2004; it wanted a major penalty against the others but a minor one against Chakrabarti though the IITs board of governors had given him a clean chit.

The ministry,on its part,admitted that Chakrabarti had told Coal India that the computerisation project was not outsourced though it was but maintained that it was just an oversight. He had not negotiated the agreement,handled the project or benefited from it in any way,the ministry told the CVC about two months ago,so he should not be penalised.

The CVC has been examining the issue since. To arrive at a final decision,it will have to consider its recommendation for a penalty as much as the IIT boards clean chit and the HRD ministrys defence of Chakrabarti.

Allegations of wrongdoing aside,Chakrabarti comes with an impressive resume: a Presidents Gold Medallist,one of the youngest winners of the S S Bhatnagar Award,dean of Sponsored Research and Industrial Consultancy,IIT Kharagpur from 2004 to 2013.

And,it seems,he is also popular with the IITs students,faculty and alumni,who have launched a PPC for Director campaign the faculty have been wearing black badges in protest since July 15 and many sat on a hunger strike on July 17 and have threatened to move court if he is not made director by July 29.