At the best of times, the newly-constituted state of Jharkhand (pop. 27 million) is on the outer periphery of the Union HRD ministry’s radar in New Delhi. When the Union government announced the promotion of eight new IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology) during the Eleventh Plan period (2007-12), an IIT would have been an ideal gift to this mineral-rich but educationally backward state. But following the publication of the list of new IITs and their locations sans Jharkhand, the population’s hope is now centred on upgradation of the status of its show-piece institution, the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad (ISM, estb. 1926) to IIT level.
This expectation has a history. Over a decade ago in 1997, the Union HRD ministry had promised the ISM faculty pay and perks parity with IIT and IIM academics. Twelve years later that promise is yet to be redeemed, even though admission into ISM is through the joint entrance examination of the IITs (IIT-JEE).
“States like Uttarakhand and Bihar will be getting an IIT each shortly, but the Centre has no such plans for Jharkhand. The Union government will be spending huge sums for these proposed IITs, but is unwilling to shell out even small change for this 83-year-old institute of national repute. All the HRD ministry has to do is upgrade ISM into an IIT,” says P.P. Bahuguna, president of ISM Teachers’ Association.
The Centre’s proposal to raise the status of ISM to the level of a National Institute of Techno-logy (NIT) for the purpose of faculty remuneration has been perceived as adding insult to injury, with ISM students, alumni and teachers having intensified their decade-old campaign for an IIT tag. This agitation received a shot in the arm when the ISM executive board — the institute’s highest decision making body — passed a resolution recommen-ding IIT status for this premier institute in August. The recomm-endation will soon be presented to the Union HRD ministry together with a detailed project report.
Moreover a delegation of ISM teachers and students met Jharkhand governor K. Sankaranarayanan in this regard in August, and will also meet Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal in the latter stages of their campaign.
The Union HRD ministry had recently revised ISM’s faculty pay scales, according to which a new lecturer will receive around Rs.22,000 per month — on a par with an NIT lecturer. But his IIT counterpart gets a much fatter pay packet of around Rs.45,000 per month. This has irked more than 150 ISM faculty, including assistant and associate professors. “It’s humiliating that we are being offered salaries that NIT teachers get. ISM has excelled in all spheres during the past five years. Our student enrolment has doubled from 1,100 to 2,400 and despite the global recession, the number of companies visiting us for recruitment of graduates hasn’t fallen,” says Bahuguna.
The institute’s students have also started a signature campai-gn in four important cities of the state — Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Dhanbad and Bokaro — to mobilise public support for the cause. Thus far, 2 lakh people have signed in favour of converting ISM into an IIT.
Argues Ashish Ranjan, an ISM alumnus and currently employed with the public sector Bharat Heavy Electronics Ltd in Kerala: “I got admission into ISM only after clearing IIT-JEE, but my degree is still considered inferior to IIT certification. This discrimination will stop only if ISM is converted into an IIT.”
The ISM faculty’s logic is impeccable. But the reality is that even in the new age of real-time connectivity, Dhanbad is a long way from imperial Delhi.
Sanjay Pandey (Ranchi)