The State-run Institute of Mathematics and Application (IMA), Bhubaneswar, the premier institute to promote mathematics, will lose its entity, thanks to the apathetic attitude of the State Government.

The IMA will soon be merged with the Central Government’s Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Kolkata. A memorandum of understanding will be signed between the Union Ministry of Planning and Statistics and the State’s Department of Science and Technology, according to official sources.

The IMA, which was inaugurated on July 23, 2008, was reduced to a sick institute due to the stopping of the required financial grant and non-recruitment of five professors.

IMA Governing Body Chairman MS Raghunathan on Thursday, ignoring the note of dissent of some of the members, decided to accelerate the process for signing of the proposed MoU which was vetted by both the State and Central Governments. However, taking this move as a prestige issue, the Odisha Mathematical Society (OMS) has opposed it. The OMS, in a memorandum to the Governor and the Chief Minister, has urged them to stall the process of merger for the interest of the State and for the sake of Odisha Swabhiman, to which the Chief Minister has committed himself.

OMS President CK Mohapatra told reporters here that some influential people with vested interest are trying to close down the IMA, originally established in 1999 by Tata Steel at a cost of Rs14 crore spread over 23 acres of land with an objective to undertake research activities and nurture a love for mathematics in the minds of talented students right from their school career.

He said some people who were in charge of the institute for a long period siphoned off a huge amount of money and then wanted the institute to be handed over to the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) to cover up their misdeeds.

Prof Mohapatra said an audit report has revealed that during the last two years around Rs50 lakh was misappropriated in the IMA in the name of capacity building of SC/ST students. The job of capacity building of SC/ST students was entrusted to a lawyer and a schoolteacher, who have no expertise in the field and the money was misappropriated.

He said that though the IMA has been playing a significant role in attracting students to mathematics, a conspiracy was hatched in 2012 to hand it over to the ISI on the ground that the institute failed to grow over the years due to want of adequate faculty members, infrastructure and funds crunch.