22 Sep : HRD Minister Kapil Sibal on Tuesday reacted sharply to the hunger strike threat by IIT professors saying it was not right for them to take such a step.
“We always dream that the IITs should produce Nobel Laureates. We do not expect our prospective Nobel Laureates to go on hunger strike. They should be hungry for knowledge,” he told reporters in New Delhi.
Around 1,500 professors and other faculty members at 13 IITs have threatened to go on a hunger strike on Thursday. They have given an ultimatum to the government to resolve by October 1 the “anomalies” in the pay structure.
“I do not think it is right for them to go on hunger strike. They should rethink,” he said.
The IIT Faculty Federation has been opposing the 40 per cent cap on promotion of professors to the senior grade and contractual appointment of teachers at entry level.
They have alleged that the HRD Ministry is interfering with their autonomy.
Sibal said the government has “never interfered” with the autonomy of IITs “but the pay system has to be regulated because we are answerable to Parliament. So we have to have some eligibility condition for entry and promotion in faculty. They are opposed to eligibility. This is unfair.”
The IIT Faculty Federation said there will be no disruption in IITs across the country on that day.
The federation has demanded that the HRD ministry officials and IIT Directors should have a meeting with it to find a solution to the issue.
Sibal made known his disapproval over the strike threat by the faculty.
“We are not averse to meeting anybody. But I am deeply pained by the public outcry and going to press. We are averse to the procedure they have adopted. They cannot go on a hunger strike and ask for a meeting,” Sibal said.
The minister came out in defence of the new pay structure, saying it was “just and legitimate”.
On the issue of flexibility in the cadre system as demanded by the IIT faculty, Sibal said, “in the name of flexibility they do not want any regulation and eligibility criteria (in appointment and promotion of faculties). But we have to have eligibility conditions to ensure quality”.
He justified the eligibility condition that the Ph.D holders with first division degree at base level course should be recruited as assistant professors.
“The faculty people want that people having second class at base level course should be given assistant professorship. This does not happen in any reputed institution in the world,” he said.
About the federation demand that the contractual appointment should go, he said, “no institute of quality in the world, including Harvard University, gives tenure straight away at entry level”.
About the federation’s views that the people may prefer to go abroad but not take up teaching job because of contractual appointment, he said, “why dont they go”.
The attrition rate in the IITs is near zero, he said.
Sibal said IIT teachers stand to get better package than their counterparts in central universities and colleges.
The ministry has given a better deal to them than what the Goverdhan Mehta committee had recommended, he said.
Regarding the demand of the IIT faculty that there should not be 40 per cent cap on promotion of professors to senior grade, Sibal said this demand was not unjustified.
“The Mehta committee had recommended that only three per cent of the total faculty should be promoted to senior grade. But as per the present pay structure, about 20 per cent of the total faculty (which is 40 per cent of total professors) can be promoted to the senior grade,” he said.
Sibal said while in universities, it takes about 15 years to become a professor, it is a matter of ten years in IITs to reach that level.