India
Parliamentary panel raised question on infrastructure development & faculty recruitment in second generation IITs | India News
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NEW DELHI: A Parliamentary panel in its report stated that as of November 2020, allotment and transfer of land was completed for four new IITs, while in four others “large land portions were pending possession.”
As per a detailed project report of the ministry of education, the new IITs would be residential institutes of an area of about 500 to 600 acres each.
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report, tabled in the Lok Sabha on Monday, noted that of the 399 acres allotted to the IIT-Gandhinagar, 150 acres was in unsuitable condition. As per the building completion audit as of 2019, IIT-Bhubaneswar and Jodhpur have completed Phase-1 of buildings, while Gandhinagar, Mandi and Ropar have not initiated the Phase-2 building construction.
The panel noted that the construction on campus, infrastructure development and faculty recruitment for second generation IITs was undertaken in a phased manner from 2012 but the pace was not commensurate with the increase in student intake.
The report is based on a CAG audit in 2021 of the eight second generation IITs — Jodhpur, Mandi, Gandhinagar, Hyderabad, Indore, Bhubaneshwar, Ropar and Patna.
The PAC, chaired by Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, raised concern on how the ministry of education (MoE) went for large scale expansion of the IIT System without ensuring availability of requisite – suitable land from the state governments, observed that for construction of permanent campuses and providing planned facilities to the students, transfer of suitable land by the states was the primary requirement.
“The committee notes that though the infrastructure work like construction of academic buildings, hostels, laboratories etc, were undertaken in a phased manner in all IITs from 2012, the pace of their creation was not commensurate with the pace of envisaged increase of student/faculty. The delays were significantly high in respect of five IITs (IIT Hyderabad up to 56 months, IIT Mandi up to 41 months, IIT Ropar up to 39 months, IIT Gandhinagar and IIT Indore up to 37 months),” the report stated.
“The MoE submitted that when an IIT is to be established in a State, the Ministry requests the state governments to allocate 500-600 acres of land free of all encumbrances which then identify two or three sites as per availability for placing before a site selection committee comprising of senior officials from the ministry, representative from the concerned IIT, mentor IIT and CPWD that visit and inspect the sites and submits their recommendations for final selection.
“Ministry added that taking into account the issues in allotment and transfer of land in some of the IITs, in future, efforts would be made to impress upon the State Governments for identification of suitable land for transfer for setting up of the IIT. In view of unsuitable land offered by some of the state governments subsequently for creation of infrastructure of IITs, the committee is constrained to observe that proper due diligence was not conducted by the site selection committee,” it added.
The panel noted that the IITs have attributed the delay in construction of buildings to time taken for finalisation of designs, obtaining regulatory clearances, statutory approval, shortage of labour and remoteness of area.
As per a detailed project report of the ministry of education, the new IITs would be residential institutes of an area of about 500 to 600 acres each.
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report, tabled in the Lok Sabha on Monday, noted that of the 399 acres allotted to the IIT-Gandhinagar, 150 acres was in unsuitable condition. As per the building completion audit as of 2019, IIT-Bhubaneswar and Jodhpur have completed Phase-1 of buildings, while Gandhinagar, Mandi and Ropar have not initiated the Phase-2 building construction.
The panel noted that the construction on campus, infrastructure development and faculty recruitment for second generation IITs was undertaken in a phased manner from 2012 but the pace was not commensurate with the increase in student intake.
The report is based on a CAG audit in 2021 of the eight second generation IITs — Jodhpur, Mandi, Gandhinagar, Hyderabad, Indore, Bhubaneshwar, Ropar and Patna.
The PAC, chaired by Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, raised concern on how the ministry of education (MoE) went for large scale expansion of the IIT System without ensuring availability of requisite – suitable land from the state governments, observed that for construction of permanent campuses and providing planned facilities to the students, transfer of suitable land by the states was the primary requirement.
“The committee notes that though the infrastructure work like construction of academic buildings, hostels, laboratories etc, were undertaken in a phased manner in all IITs from 2012, the pace of their creation was not commensurate with the pace of envisaged increase of student/faculty. The delays were significantly high in respect of five IITs (IIT Hyderabad up to 56 months, IIT Mandi up to 41 months, IIT Ropar up to 39 months, IIT Gandhinagar and IIT Indore up to 37 months),” the report stated.
“The MoE submitted that when an IIT is to be established in a State, the Ministry requests the state governments to allocate 500-600 acres of land free of all encumbrances which then identify two or three sites as per availability for placing before a site selection committee comprising of senior officials from the ministry, representative from the concerned IIT, mentor IIT and CPWD that visit and inspect the sites and submits their recommendations for final selection.
“Ministry added that taking into account the issues in allotment and transfer of land in some of the IITs, in future, efforts would be made to impress upon the State Governments for identification of suitable land for transfer for setting up of the IIT. In view of unsuitable land offered by some of the state governments subsequently for creation of infrastructure of IITs, the committee is constrained to observe that proper due diligence was not conducted by the site selection committee,” it added.
The panel noted that the IITs have attributed the delay in construction of buildings to time taken for finalisation of designs, obtaining regulatory clearances, statutory approval, shortage of labour and remoteness of area.
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