funds wanted

New Delhi, Sept. 1: The Indian Institutes of Technology in Hyderabad and Gandhinagar are facing a funds crunch that threatens to stymie their growth within a month of their birth and is forcing them to repeatedly beg Delhi for assistance.

The two IITs have independently written to the human resource development ministry for more funds, top government officials have said. They have indicated that the funds crunch threatens to derail plans to hire faculty, sources said.

Officials from the two IITs have followed up their letters with phone calls to HRD ministry officials to remind them of the “urgency” of their request, the sources said.

The seven IITs established earlier have faced such financial constraints in the past.

But HRD ministry officials admit the current crisis at the new IITs is “embarrassing” for the government as it may add fuel to allegations that the plan to expand India’s biggest engineering school brand was ill-conceived.

“Those who doubted whether we could maintain the standards of the IITs despite expansion will claim they have been vindicated if the new institutes suffer for want of funds,” a senior HRD ministry official said.

Although the ministry maintains it will not allow any “dilution of excellence”, the sources admitted that the crisis could have been avoided but for the government’s enthusiasm to start six new IITs this year.

At the time the Union budget was announced, the Centre had planned to open three of the eight new IITs promised during the 11th five-year plan. The budget had allocated Rs 50 crore for starting the institutes. But the HRD ministry subsequently decided to launch six IITs this year, the last before general elections.

“The Rs 50 crore which was to be shared by three new IITs now has to be shared by six institutes. That means fewer funds for each new institute this year,” an HRD ministry official explained.

Of the six, the Punjab, Bhubaneswar and Rajasthan IITs have started classes from campuses of their mentor institutes — in Delhi, Kharagpur and Kanpur, respectively.

The IITs in Hyderabad, Gandhinagar and Patna have started classes from temporary campuses — abandoned polytechnics — mentored by the institutes in Chennai, Mumbai and Guwahati, respectively.

The HRD ministry has released Rs 2.5 crore for each of the six new IITs launched this year, the sources said.

Each of the established IITs has additionally loaned Rs 2 crore of their earnings to the new institutes they are mentoring, the sources added. These funds are to be returned over a period of five years.

The Hyderabad and Gandhinagar IITs, in their letters to the HRD ministry, have asked for Rs 10 crore more.