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MPs’ plaint against Smriti Irani

The MPs further said the HRD ministry and the minister should lay down broad policy
New Delhi: Four MPs belonging to different political parties have issued a statement urging President Pranab Mukherjee to exercise his wisdom to “prevent loss and damage’’ to some great institutions such as IITs or the Central universities of eminence, alleging interference by HRD minister Smriti Irani and the RSS in matters of higher education and functioning of these institutions and Central universities.
The MPs said in their statement, issued on April 6, that the President must intervene and protect the educational institutions. The four MPs are K.C. Tyagi, D. Raja, Rajiv Shukla and D.P. Tripathi. Expressing grave concern over the alleged “systematic destruction of higher education’’, the MPs in their letter said the list is large and worrisome and various instances of RSS interference in matters of higher education have been there. The MPs further said the HRD ministry and the minister should lay down broad policy and ensure adequate funding and “not interfere and systematically erode the functioning of these institutions that have been so well-served in the past by their own acts and statutes’’.
In their statement, the MPs also called upon the government and the Prime Minister “to intervene, to prevent lasting damage to great educational institutions before it becomes too late.” Recently nuclear scientist and former chairman of the board of governors of IIT Bombay Anil Kakodkar spoke against the decision making process at the educational institution. The scientist apparently resigned because of differences with the HRD ministry over selection of some IIT directors.
Mr Kakodkar’s resignation came two months after IIT Delhi director R. Shevgaonkar had stepped down from his post in December 2014 which had triggered a controversy amidst reports that there were sharp differences between him and the HRD ministry over certain issues.
( Source : dc )
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