Sunday, October 17, 2010

MANIT: FIELD REPORT ON LATEST STATUS

We got this report from Gaurav. Posting the same as it is

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On behalf of Society Against Violence in Education (SAVE, no2ragging.org), I, Gaurav Singhal, visited MANIT on Apri l5th, 2010. Here is my report, from my internal email to the NGO. I am not attaching the pics mentioned in the report below.
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I visited MANIT Bhopal on this Monday and first headed towards the freshers hostel. There I first met with three SPA second year students (Two of them in the pics) and they informed that ragging this year was nothing compared to the last year, and all that has become possible due to appointment of new director and the dean of student welfare. I then talked to the security person and he told that since the college administration made a flying squad of 5 security people for night raids, gave them 3 bikes and a mobile phone and gave this number to every fresher, incidents of ragging esp in night at hostels became negligible. The college also had two segregated fresher hostels with only one point of entry where this guard in the picture was sitting, and during first 3-4 months no senior was allowed inside the fresher hostels. He said that since the time the new private security has been hired, it has been very strict with rules and regulations.

Then I caught up 12 fresher guys (6 groups, each with two guys) in different parts of the campus and all of them said the ragging was very very mild this year. they all praised the efforts made by the new admin. I even forced them to say something- i mean something might have happened to them... but they ALL said it , was very mild and few of the cases that were reported to the flying squad, the seniors were caught red handed and strictly punished, so after those cases ragging almost stopped.

ALL the students of the college also submitted the affidavits as stipulated by UGC this year.

Also recently there was a call to submit 4000/- by the freshers, but the freshers informed that all the wardens asked freshers not to do so, so only 10-20% freshers have paid it, rest have refused and the seniors could do nothing.

After that I met with dean of student welfare Dr. V. K. Khare (pic attached) and congratulated him on the steps taken. I tried to acknowledge the good work done and motivate them even further. He asked me and SAVE to come with even better suggestions and said that he will try to implement them also.

He also said that it was not him but a whole team of people who were responsible for the improved situation. he refused to take the credit for himself only.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Sibal nod for sacking 62 teachers

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Sibal-nod-for-sacking-62-teachers/articleshow/5911000.cms

NEW DELHI: In a big clean-up act, HRD minister Kapil Sibal has approved cancellation of appointment of more than 60 teachers of the prestigious Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (MNIT), Bhopal, who were recruited illegally in 2005.

Sources in MNIT said 15 assistant professors and 47 lecturers besides training and placement officer and librarians would lose their jobs. Sources said many teachers did not even meet the criterion of basic academic qualification while some paid bribes to get the job.

Sibal has asked officials to simultaneously rescind these appointments and begin fresh recruitment. However, officials at MNIT said they were still to et any communication from the HRD ministry.

These teachers in the rank of lecturers and assistant professors (system of designation has since changed) have been working for the last five years. NITs, directly under the HRD ministry, are being modelled on the lines of IITs.

"Reversal of appointments in such a large number will definitely harm the reputation of NITs,” an NIT director said.

"What is shocking is that no action was taken despite a report by a fact-finding committee in 2008 against their appointment," he added.

The issue of illegal appointments resurfaced when CBI sought HRD ministry’s approval to investigate the role of Rajneesh Shrivastava, currently director NIIT, Jamshedpur, in recruitment of an assistant professor when he was at MNIT, Bhopal. It came to notice that as per the directions of the ministry, MNIT had set up a fact-finding committee in 2007 that looked into irregularities in appointments including the one for which Shrivastava was being held responsible.

The ministry then decided that since Shrivastava was not alone in taking the decision, it would be proper to deal with lacunae in appointments pointed out by the fact-finding committee. The committee had even suggested a separate inquiry to investigate allegations of bribery in appointment. Therefore, it was decided to cancel all the
appointments.