Knowledge Comm plans to make govt more accountable

NEW DELHI: After a brief row with the government on quotas for the socially underprivileged, the National Knowledge Commission (NKC) is thinking how to make lawmakers more accountable vis-a-vis its recommendations.

NKC Chairman Sam Pitroda on Wednesday said the commission was thinking of asking the government to make public the reasons for not accepting its recommendations on various issues.

"We are thinking of asking the government to document their reasons for not accepting our recommendations," he said replying to questions at an open house session organised by CII here.

The NKC Chairman said that the commission will make fresh recommendations on wide ranging issues to the government in the next three months.

"Our recommendations will include setting up web portals on energy, environment, knowledge network, higher education, university reforms, intellectual property rights, agriculture, traditional knowledge and health information," he said.

Two members of the commission had resigned earlier in protest against the government's decision to extend quotas for Other Backward Classes.

Pitroda said although India was on a high peak of performance, the average is very low. "Therefore, we should propose the right set of recommendations to the government and bring about relevant changes," he said.

Talking about the education scenario in the country, Pitroda said the government was not equipped to fund the education needs of the country. "There needs to be lot more private participation in the sector but without compromising on the quality of education".