IIT professors to teach on empty stomach
By siliconindia   |   Thursday, 24 September 2009, 22:11 IST   |    11 Comments
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IIT professors to teach on empty stomach
New Delhi: Members of the All India IIT Faculty Federation (AIIFF) have decided to teach with hungry stomachs on Thursday despite Union Human Resources Development (HRD) Minister, Kapil Sibal snubbing them for their agitation over the pay anomalies and new appointment conditions. "Our intention is not to counter him (Sibal). We are concerned that under the revised appointment conditions it will be difficult to attract talented faculty, especially on contract basis. The minister is saying we are being unreasonable but our demands are reasonable. We have decided to go ahead with the proposed fast agitation on Thursday," AIIFF President professor M Thenmozhi told The Times of India on Wednesday. A day long panel discussion on 'IITs and the IIT System: Vision for 2030' will also be held on the IIT Madras campus as part of the "working day agitation." Over 1,300 teachers of the 14 institutes across the country are part of the protest.Professors said that while an increased pay structure is their key demand, the ministry's 40 percent cap on the promotion of professors to the next level is another contentious area. They are also against the ministry's proposal not to appoint fresh PhD holders as teachers in the IITs even though the institutions are facing a severe faculty crunch. The ministry said that unless a candidate with a PhD has three years of teaching experience, he or she cannot be on the permanent rolls. But faculty members point out that this is not applicable to the university system but still applied to the IITs. "There should not be any cap on excellence whether in appointment of fresh teachers or promotion of professors to a senior level," an agitating IIT Delhi faculty member said. HRD Minister, Kapil Sibal Tuesday disapproved of the teachers' protest plans. "The faculty behaviour doesn't meet IIT standards," he said.

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