Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Family favoritism taints NIT’s reputation


Director’s kin bags job, eligible candidate ignored

Yogesh Mishra

Raipur, February 04, 2010  


The state’s prestigious National Institute of Technology (NIT) is in limelight again. However, this time, it is not owing to the brainpower of its pupils but due to its biased recruitment system. Although, selection committees are framed to carry out the recruitment process, but the NIT Director Shashi Krishna Pandey allegedly steers such panels covertly.
The glaring example is recruitment of Pandey’s daughter-in-law Manju as a lecturer in MCA department who got preference over a more eligible candidate Jyoti Singh, who is currently working as a Deputy Registrar in Swami Vivekanand Technical University (CSVTU) Bhilai. We tried several times to contact Pandey to know her version into this entire episode, but each time she refused to talk on pretext of busy schedule. When insisted, she said since she was not in the selection panel, she was not answerable to any questions related to this issue.
According to information, Manju Pandey is just an MCA and is currently pursuing her PhD. On the other hand, the vast teaching experiencae of Jyoti Singh itself proves that she was the deserving candidate. Already a PhD, Singh has been the intact part of Government College of Engineering & Technology (upgraded to NIT on December 1, 2005) from 1994 to 2005. She got selected through the Public Service Commision (PSC) exam that held in 1992 and then joined the institute as an MCA feculty member in 1994. In the year 2000, she was attached for other administrative works and she spent five years more in the institute. In 2005, the state government sent Singh to the newly formed Technical University at Bhilai.
When contacted, Singh said being a government official, she could not comment on the controversial selection process. However, she admitted that the selection of a fresher candidate Manju Pandey was a surprising element not only for her, but also for other candidates. Singh said she was hoping to get selected because she was satisfied with her interview.
Over an year back, there were four vacant posts of lecturers in the MCA department – two for general category, one for Other Backward Class (OBC) and one for Scheduled Caste (SC). A number of candidates applied for the posts. However, in spite of having experienced PhD candidates including Jyoti Singh, the general category was filled with non-PhDs that comprised inexperienced Manju Pandey.
The six-member selection committee was headed by Prof Bhardwaj, HoD Mathematics from IIT Roorkie. One of the panel member represented SC/ST category while one member was HoD from NIT. Surprisingly, NIT’s HoD from MCA department, Prof HK Bikrol was not in the panel.
The NIT sources informed that the names of the panel members were recommended by the NIT Director who had ulterior motives to twist the final decision of the selection committee in her favour.  
In BOX
Now the NIT Director Shashi Krishna Pandey is making efforts to take her son Sunil Pandey for the post of system administrator. The institute recently published an advertisement in its official website regarding the vacant post. The NIT sources informed that the eligibility criterion for the post is at least five years of experience in the same field. However, since Sunil Pandey does not have five years of experience, the norms have been reported to be relaxed. The Director has recently visited New Delhi to ensure that if a selection panel would be constituted then it should have her acquainted members who could pick her son. It is also learnt that the Director is planning to create opportunities in the NIT for her spouse, KS Pandey, former Director Maulana Azad NIT Bhopal.  

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