Contradictory information on GATE puts IIT Kharagpur in a dock

The Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) brochure says that IITs admits students for M Tech on basis of the test score but the IIT, Kharagpur denied it in a reply to a RTI applicant.

Updated on: Feb 11, 2012, 21:43:08 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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In an embarrassment, the Central Information Commission (CIC) has asked the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur whether it admits students for masters in technology (M Tech) on basis of Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE). The GATE brochure says that IITs admits students for M Tech on basis of the test score but the IIT, Kharagpur denied it in a reply to a RTI applicant.

The GATE test is conducted by IITs for post graduate admissions. On Sunday, thousands of students from across India will be appearing for the examination.

This contradictory position was brought before the information commission this week.

Rajiv Kumar, the RTI applicant, had sought information from IIT, Kharagpur regarding students called for interview on basis of GATE score in August 2010. The institute a month later, told him that no students in IITs were admitted on basis of the test score. The same was reiterated in a reply to first appeal filed by Kumar.

He then filed a complaint with the CIC claiming that the information provided was misleading and incorrect. He also attached a brochure of GATE examination stating that admissions in all IITs and Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore, admit student for masters on basis of the test result.

Information Commissioner Deepak Sandhu asked the question raised by Kumar with public information officer of IIT, Kharagpur, A Patro, who claimed that the information was correct. He also told the commission that the information was provided to him by PKG Mohapatra, Dean, Post Graduate Studies, of the IIT.

Kumar, a professor at IIT, Kharagpur, termed the information as “patently incorrect” saying that the institute was admitting students on basis of the GATE score. He also said that it was another attempt by the IIT to block transparency in its admission system. Kumar’s petition in the Supreme Court had pushed the IITs to declare the score of its entrance examination for bachers in technology courses.

Sandhu asked Patro to reconfirm the information from the Dean and if it was correct, to state the same through an affidavit. Once that it done, the CIC will take a final view on the decision.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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