IIT faculties attack Kharagpur director for backing govt

The war within IITs over the Centre's 'one-nation one-test' proposal escalated on Sunday with faculties of all IITs attacking director of Kharagpur, Damodar Acharya, for his support to the government's move.

In a statement, All India IIT Faculty Federation said that it was "shocked to learn that the director, IIT Kharagapur has made public statements which are in contradiction to the resolutions made by the Senate of IIT Kharagpur."

Acharya had said on Saturday that the institution does not have any objection to the Centre's move to conduct a common entrance exam for central engineering institutions.

The Federation said that resolutions of the IIT Kharagpur Senate did not recommend inclusion of Class XII board marks, and conduct of JEE by a third party.

"IIT Kharagpur Senate categorically said that till 2014, no change should be made and status quo be maintained," it said.

Separately, faculty of the IIT-Khargpur also issued a statement rejecting the Centre's  proposal for a Common Entrance Test into IITs, NITs and IIITs.

"The trust that IIT-JEE has earned over the last five decades is due to the continuous evolution of processes and unflinching devotion of the faculty and staff of IITs.... Any test leading to ranking in IIT admissions must be wholly owned by IITs," it said.

The fresh move by the Federation came a day after the directors of the Guwahati and Kharagpur IITs opposed IIT-Kanpur Senate's decision to conduct its own entrance exam from next year and backed the Centre's move.

Questioning the position taken by directors of two IITs, IIT-Delhi Alumni Association asked them to go with the Senates' decision.

"We want IIT Directors to go with the Senates' decision and not to give in to any pressure tactics of the HRD Ministry,"  IIT Delhi Alumni president Somnath Bharti told PTI.