Lack of transparency in NKC: Bhargava

Sam Pitroda, chairman NKC suggests wide ranges of recommendations in higher education, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Jan 6, 2007, 20:24:00 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The National Knowledge Commission (NKC) has been accused of lacking transparency by its vice-chairperson PM Bhargava. When it was set up, one of its basic priorities was to bring transparency into government.

Bhargava is the third member to express dissent. Earlier this year, Bhanu Pratap Mehta and Andre Beteille resigned on the 27 per cent OBC reservation issue.

Unlike Mehta and Beteille, Bhargava's dissent is directed against NKC chairperson Sam Pitroda. "Let's not blame anyone individually. But as its chairman, Sam is clearly responsible for the commission's actions," PTI quoted him as saying. Pitroda was not available for comment.

What has apparently perturbed Bhargava is that the Commission's submitted its recommendations on higher education to the Prime Minister without consulting him. " The newspapers inform me about most of these reports on various issues bring submitted to the PM. I have no knowledge about any reports prepared after January 2006.

I have been left out of the reports on higher education, language, vocational education, libraries, to mention a few."

Pitroda, in a set of recommendations, has suggested wide-ranging changes in higher education. He has called for setting up an independent regulator for all higher education institutions in place of University Grants Commission, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), Medical Council of India and Dental Council of India. He has also suggested that institutions be graded according to the facilities available and that should be the criteria for granting recognition.

Bharagava did not agree with the NKC's and government's view on allowing foreign education providers into India. He feels that foreign institutions should be banned by an Act of Parliament.

Delivering a lecture at Indian Science Congress, the bio-technologist said that collaboration with foreign universities should be restricted to research."

He said that it was 'shame' that the commerce ministry has no qualms in inviting foreign universities to 'exploit' Indians.

Email Chetan Chauhan: chetan @hindustantimes.com

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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