Autonomy of IITs will remain intact: PM assures Federation

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today gave an assurance that the autonomy of IITs will remain “intact”. The IIT faculty federation, opposing the proposed common entrance to these institutes, informed the media of the PM’s statement after meeting him. “We explained each of our points to him (PM). He has told us he will talk to the HRD Minister and assured us that the autonomy of the IITs will remain intact,” secretary of All India IIT Faculty Federation (AIIITFF) A K Mittal told reporters after the federation met Singh. [caption id=“attachment_345117” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“A delegation of All India IIT Faculty Federation interacting with the media after meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on Friday. PTI”]  [/caption] The federation has contended that the common entrance test for admission to the undergraduate programme to the IITs and other Centrally-funded institutes will undermine the autonomous status enjoyed by the IITs. The meeting came in the backdrop of HRD Minister Kapil Sibal cutting short his US visit and returning to India late last night. During the meeting, the federation raised the issue of autonomy and said the decision taken by the IIT council about holding the one nation one examination should be ratified by all the IIT senates. “We also insisted that any change in the entrance test should be effected only after 2013,” Mittal said. The federation also raised the issue of giving weightage to board marks after the process of normalisation for preparing the merit list. “Normalisation of board marks needs more studies”, he said. Mittal felt all the IITs are free to emulate IIT Kanpur’s move to hold its own entrance test following the government’s decision to hold the nation-wide common entrance test under a new format. PTI