Hyderabad: Osmania University may have lost the Indian Science Congress to Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT), Bhubaneswar, sources said.
The Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) will make an official announcement after its organising committee meets on December 27, 2017.
Osmania University was to be the venue of the prestigious congress scheduled for January 3 to 7. The reasons for not holding the congress here are still not clear.
Several logistical problems have arisen as a result of the change of venue. Some Rs 2.60 crore was collected as registration fees, which OU is planning to transfer back to the members who registered. About 13,000 members had registered for the ISC up to December 15.
The registration fee, which had to be paid in advance, is Rs 2,000 per head for Indian members and much more for overseas members.
OU registrar Gopal Reddy said that as the fee was collected through the Indian Science Congress Association, “we will try to transfer back the money to the association from where they can repay participants or they can transfer it to the next venue if the event is planned in another university”.
He added, “The event was likely postponed because Prime Minister Narendra Modi is quite busy due to Parliament session. We are waiting for the final decision of the organising committee on December 27. Once it is finalised we will decide on the fee transfer process.”
