Over the years, resentment is brewing among people from different walks of life particularly the students, scholars and pass outs, against the administration of the institute. People express anger over the alleged malpractice by the people at the helm of affairs at the institute.
Apparently the NIT administration is lagging behind in maintaining a good public reputation. It is an old saying that the voice of people is the voice of God. So in terms of this, the NIT administration should make efforts and have a good liaison with people. It will at least help in restoring the glory of this institute.
It cannot be right to say that all is not well at the institute but at the same time we cannot vouch for the institute being manned by the perfectionists.
Given the stature of the institute, maintaining public perception should be the first priority of the people at the helm of affairs. It is a secondary question that the institute of such a high stature and standards doesn’t have a sanctioned post for a Public Relation Officer (PRO).
The contents of the NIT’s official website reads that the institute is the only technical institute of national importance in the J&K and is one of the premier technical institutes of India. The institute was one of the first eight Regional Engineering Colleges (REC), established in 1960, by the Government of India. Later in 2003, the institute was converted to National Institute of Technology (NIT) by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) as an institute of national importance.
Now coming to the point, the perception about the NIT changed last year after the institute slipped from 67th to below 200 in past five years in National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) in the category of engineering colleges across the country. The NIT Srinagar was figuring in the list of the engineering colleges which have been ranked from 200 to 250 positions.
The move raised questions over the NIT administration as the institute was ranked among 100 engineering colleges in 2015 by NIRF ranking which helped it in getting special grants and annual allocation from MHRD.
So, questions were raised on what led to the downfall of the institute in terms of maintaining the academic and research standards.
The decrease in the ranking was termed as a debacle for the institute. It is believed that any engineering college which is ranked below 200 faces slash in annual grants, loans, aids provided by the MHRD.
The downfall in the NIRF ranking resulted in an internal bickering between the teaching staff and the administration of the institute. The professors and the administration were at loggerheads with both shifting the blame over declining the standards of the institute.
Amid the blame game, the poor performance of NIT in NIRF ranking got much hype resulting in getting negative public opinion. The institute failed to clear the air about its poor performance with the result the negative public perception about its failing standards remained unchanged.
Besides facing downfall in maintaining national level standards, the NIT has come under question for having an alleged hidden agenda in the latest recruitment going on at the institute. These allegations must not have any ground but things can be made clear only if the officials at the helm of affairs clears the public perception by clearing the air.
The recruitment notification was advertised in February last year and is still under process despite the passage of over one year.
Under MHRD rules, any recruitment process which remains incomplete in six months has to be re-advertised. But the director continued the recruitment without re-advertising the posts. Though the director has clarified that he got special permission from the board of governors., but people know that the director himself is the chairman of the board of the governors.
There was also resentment among the candidates over the calculation of the cooling period by the administration which termed dozens of local candidates ineligible for the job. The candidates whose cooling period did not get complete till June 30 were not eligible for the posts. But after closing the link of the application forms, the NIT extended the date for calculation of the cooling period. But the move was termed merely an eyewash as it did not serve any purpose for the aggrieved candidates who were termed ineligible. Apparently, the relaxation in calculation of cooling period was done to befool the candidates.
There is a long list of grievances against NIT administration but the authorities at the institute are least bothered to listen, not to talk of addressing them.
When it comes to the flaws in maintaining transparency, again NIT fails to convince. Majority of the Right to Information (RTI) applications filed in the NIT have not been answered yet. Obviously questions will be raised if a public institute hesitates to share with the public any information with regard to the academic, administration and overall functioning. After all it is a public institution and is answerable to people.
These accusations and the allegations give an impression that the NIT is not in order. Something, somewhere is wrong and again the ball lies in NIT’s court to clear the public perception. Recently, the director NIT, Prof. Rakesh Sehgal, while responding to questions raised over the ongoing recruitment process told me that they cannot make everyone happy and he was also of the opinion that people do not want them (NIT officials) to work freely. Mr. Sehgal, such responses and answers will not nullify the accusations, instead raises more questions over the process.
The NIT is of national standards and the government needs to be more careful about its reputation and functioning. Government should not allow the negative public perception to mar the reputation of the institute. Under these circumstances, this is the right time for the government to intervene and make things clear before the public.
The intervention of the government will result in two things. Once things are made clear, it will either change the public opinion about the institute in a positive way or it will make heads roll at the institute. Let things be presented in black and white without any shades of grey.