Parliament on Tuesday approved establishment of six new IITs across the country by passing the Institutes of Technology (Amendment) Bill 2016 in the Rajya Sabha. IITs will also be started in Palakkad (Kerala), Goa, Dharward (Karnataka), Bhilai (Chhattisgarh), Jammu and Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh). The lok Sabha had passed on July 25 the Bill which also seeks to bring the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, within the ambit of the proposed Act.
HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said the IITs are the centre of excellence and they will continue to remain like that. “We will not allow anything that will lower their standards. Actually we all should try to improve them further and make them really world class institutes. Therefore
quality is absolutely important,” he said.
On funding for the premier institutes, he said there would not be any financial constraints for growth of IITs. The Government is already working on a scheme for financing higher education infrastructure needs, particularly research infrastructure requirements, HRD Minister said.
“Rs 20,000 crore will be leveraged through Government’s own contribution of nearly Rs 1,000 crore which is promised in this Budget and another Rs 1,000 crore will be coming from partners like nationalised banks or something,” Javadekar said.
Replying to a matter raised by D Raja (CPI) on issue of having freedom of expression on the campuses, Javadekar said the government will ensure freedom on the campuses. Raja said obstructionists and fundamentalists were destroying the academic freedom on the campuses.
He said sedition charges have been filed against students at various places including JNU. “The(sedition charges) should be withdrawn,” he said.
Raja also said that the Government is not adhering to reservation policy in terms of appointments to IITs and NITs.
Replying on the issue, Javadekar said, “As far as reservation is concerned I will review immediately and we will ensure that reservation is implemented in letter and spirit.”
On the fee structure, he said students from the ST and SC communities, from the Below Poverty line (BPl) category and physically challenged have full waiver of fees in the IITs and NITs. He said those whose family income is below Rs 9 lakh per annum also get education loan at zero per cent interest rate.
“So fee hike is only for people who have annual income of more than Rs 9 lakh. So what is against poor studentsIJ We are incurring an expense of Rs 6 lakh per year per student. So somebody has to pay,” Javadekar said.
Earlier, speaking during the debate, Jairam Ramesh (Congress) said “climate change” is taking place in the HRD Ministry. He said IITs “should be freed” from the control of the HRD Ministry.
“Give full autonomy to the Boards (of IITs) and hold them accountable for very issue including expenditure. let the institutes be run by Board which you appoint,” Ramesh said.