Acrimony over appointment limited to IIT Ropar

NEW DELHI: The acrimony over the appointment of IIT directors was limited to IIT, Ropar since search-cum-selection committee that met on Sunday has persisted with the earlier choice made for IIT, Patna and Bhubaneshwar. However, for Ropar, the committee is learnt to have recommended the name of Ratnam Varada Rajakumar, professor of electronics in IIT-Kharagpur.

For IIT-Patna, the search-cum-selection committee has recommended Pushpak Bhattacharyya, professor of computer science and engineering in IIT-Bombay. For IIT-Bhubaneswar, it has recommended Sarit Kumar Das, professor of mechanical engineering in IIT-Madras. The names have been sent to President Pranab Mukherjee, visitor to IITs, for approval.

Sources said the entire controversy was ignited by an IIT director who alleged that some eligible candidates were being deliberately ignored by the search-cum-selection committee. He even claimed that a candidate from IIT-Kharagpur, who had held important posts outside the IIT system, was left out in the very first round. In case of IIT-Ropar, many names like Manoj Dutta of IIT-Delhi and Rajiv Sekhar of IIT-Kanpur were discussed but no decision could be taken.

By then, it was decided to hold the meeting of the search-cum-selection committee again and it was decided to call all 37 candidates afresh. A peeved Anil Kakodkar, a member of the search-cum-selection committee, resigned as chairperson of IIT-Bombay. Though he took back his resignation at the request of HRD minister Smriti Irani, Kakodkar did not attend the search committee meeting.

Two other members of the search committee - M S Ananth, former director, IIT-Madras, and Lila Poonawalla, chairperson, IIT-Ropar - also did not attend the meeting. The meeting was chaired by Irani. Later, Kakodkar told TOI that calling 37 candidates on one day was not right. "There is a fundamental difficulty with the process. How do you ensure that you make the correct selection," Kakodkar had told TOI.