Panel cautions Centre on new IITs

A Parliamentary panel today cautioned the Centre that mere declaration of certain institutes as institutions of national importance will only be a quantitative achievement and the new IITs may not be able to match the established standards in near future.

The observation was made by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resources Development in its report tabled in the Rajya Sabha on the Institutes of Technology Act, 1961, which is aimed at declaring certain institutes of technology to be institutions of national importance.

In the report, the committee said that the government had constituted an expert committee to identify certain academic institutions which had the potential for being upgraded to the level of IITs and the institute of technology, Banaras Hindu University (BHU) had been recommended for the purpose.

But it said, "Mere declaration of these institutes as institutions of national importance indicates only a quantitative achievement. Fulfilment of qualitative parameters for the new IITs does not seem to be feasible in the near future".

The committee observed that earlier the seven IITs at Delhi, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Roorkee, Bombay, madras and Guwahati were covering the entire country. Now, with eight more IITs at various places, distribution of states and Union Territories would be more balanced.

While making comparative analysis of the existing zones and reconstituted zones, the committee found out that with the exception of IIT, Guwahati, a number of states/UTs falling under the jurisdiction of other existing IITs has been reduced.

The committee said that while IIT, Roorkee, which was earlier having Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Uttranchal states has been assigned now Haryana and Uttrakhand, there is no mention of any zone with respect to IIT, BHU. Reasons for this exception are not known but recommended corrective steps in this direction.