Goa, Jammu among six cities to get IITs

NEW DELHI: The Rajya Sabha passed Institutes of Technology (Amendment) Bill 2016 on Tuesday by voice vote. Under the new bill IITs will come up in Jammu, Tirupati, Palakkad, Goa, Dharward and Bhilai.

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Earlier, the Lok Sabha had passed on July 25 the Bill which also seeks to bring the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, within the ambit of the proposed Act.

Replying to a debate on the bill, HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said the IITs are the centre of excellence and they will continue to remain like that. “We will not allow anything that will lower their standards. Actually we all should try to improve them further and make them really world class institutes. Therefore quality is absolutely important,” he said.

Replying to Jairam Ramesh of Congress, who raised the issue of ensuring complete autonomy for the IITs, Javedekar said the HRD Ministry is not there on any board of IITs. “MHRD is not even represented on Board of Governors. It is completely run by the Board. We only facilitate in finance and that is where we will concentrate,” he said.

“Rs 20,000 crore will be leveraged through government’s own contribution of nearly Rs 1,000 crore which is promised in this Budget and another Rs 1,000 crore will be coming from partners like nationalised banks or something,” Javadekar said.

Admitting lack of faculty in the IITs, Javedekar said currently there are around 30 per cent vacancies in the premier institutes. “We need to take proactive steps in this regard, including interviews of talent who are out of the country. We want to fill up the vacancies as soon as possible, in a continuous process. It’s our priority,” Javadekar said.

Replying to a matter raised by D Raja (CPI) on issue of having freedom of expression on the campuses, Javadekar said the government will ensure freedom on the campuses.