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Prof Brahmjit appointed NIT Kurukshetra officiating director
The appointment comes days after the Union ministry of education (MoE) withdrew the administrative and financial powers of the director, professor BV Ramana Reddy
The National Institute of Technology (NIT) Kurukshetra appointed senior professor Brahmjit Singh as officiating director on Friday, officials said on Sunday.
The appointment comes days after the Union ministry of education (MoE) withdrew the administrative and financial powers of the director, professor BV Ramana Reddy. He resigned from his position and his resignation was accepted on Friday, officials said.
The Union government on March 29 constituted a three-member committee to review the functioning of the institute and the director’s leadership. Confirming the development, NIT Kurukshetra public relations officer Gian Bhushan said that Reddy’s resignation was accepted on Friday.
Institute sources said that following the setback, Reddy submitted his resignation on April 4, and was accepted when Vineet Joshi, secretary of the department of higher education, MoE, visited the institute on Friday to review the ongoing concerns involving student suicides.
On the same day, the most senior professor, Brahmjit Singh, was appointed as the officiating director. Singh has been overseeing administrative work at NIT since Reddy’s powers were withdrawn.
The three-member committee constituted by the Union government to review the functioning of the institute and leadership role of Reddy included professor Anil Sahasrabudhe, chairman, National Education Technology Forum (NETF); M Madan Gopal, IAS (retd), chairperson, board of governors, Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT), Nagpur; and professor K K Shukla, director, Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (MANIT), Bhopal.
The panel was tasked to examine governance, academic and administrative functioning and review issues of recruitment and promotion processes, handling of staff grievances, and complaints forwarded by the Central Vigilance Commission and other agencies.
The committee is also looking into the institutional performance, including decline in NIRF rankings, prolonged vacancies in key statutory and administrative positions (notably registrar), and the exercise of administrative and financial powers.
However, it was learnt that Reddy’s resignation comes in view of the Centre’s order to scrap his powers, but the approval may have a bearing on four student suicide cases reported on campus in the past two months.
The institute on Saturday also issued suspension orders for joint registrar Gyana Ranjan Samantaray following the visit of a Central team on Friday to investigate the matter of student suicides.
The institute has reported four student suicides in the past two months with three occuring in April only. After the death of 20-year-old second-year AI and data science student from Bihar on April 16, protests erupted on campus, alleging negligence by the institute and demanding a probe into the matter. Following the protests, the authorities announced holidays till further orders and asked the students to vacate their hostels.
However, on Saturday, students of BTech final year, PG final year, and MTech first year were told to return to the institute from May 9. Haryana Human Rights Commission has also taken suo motu cognisance of the suicides on a news report published by Hindustan Times on April 19, asking the institute director, deputy commissioner and superintendent of police for a detailed report.
