New Delhi: A government panel has quietly recommended that India’s oldest science academy be dropped from a select quartet of academies, shrinking the pool of scientists eligible for a special allowance.

Some fellows of the reputable National Academy of Sciences India (NASI), founded by celebrated astrophysicist Meghnad Saha in Allahabad in 1930, have termed the hush-hush decision “insulting” as well as “sly”, flagging how it had passed under the radar for 15 months.

They have questioned whether a committee dominated overwhelmingly by bureaucrats had the credentials to decide on a matter that belonged to the province of academicians.

Documents The Telegraph has obtained under the RTI Act show that an empowered committee headed by then higher education secretary K.K. Sharma, while recommending a hike in the allowance in May last year, dropped the NASI from the list. 

A special monthly allowance of Rs 15,000 accrues to teachers at the centrally funded technical institutions, including the Indian Institutes of Technology, who happen to be fellows of at least two of the four academies. The other three academies are the Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi; Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore; and the Indian National Academy of Engineering, Gurgaon.

With the recommended hike in the allowance not yet implemented, nor has the suggested omission of the NASI taken effect.

NASI president and eminent scientist Anil Kakodkar said such decisions should be left to academicians. “This issue came up for discussion at the council of the NASI. The fellows said they felt insulted by the decision. It’s a matter that should be decided by academicians,” Kakodkar said.

Kakodkar said he had written to the ministry seeking the NASI’s continuation in the list. “I have spoken to the minister (Prakash Javadekar) too. He has assured me that it (NASI) would be restored to the list,” Kakodkar said.

A scientist becomes a fellow of the NASI by dint of outstanding research and a recommendation from an eminent scientist or fellow, which is vetted by an academy committee before the NASI Council takes the final decision. Currently, the NASI has 1,800 fellows, most of whom work in the IITs or research labs.

Earlier, another committee, headed by former IIT Bombay director Ashok Misra, while recommending pay and perks revisions for teachers of centrally funded technical institutions, had suggested the monthly allowance for fellows of two or more of the four select academies be raised to about Rs 40,000.

“This is indeed an excellent scheme for the recognition of the outstanding research performance of a faculty (member) by a peer group and hence should be continued,” the Misra report said.

Sharma’s empowered committee was set up on April 24 last year to examine the Misra committee recommendations “keeping in view the administrative and financial implications”. On May 30 last year, the empowered committee issued its recommendations.

“Revision of allowances for being fellows of 2 national academies (INSA, IA Sc/INAE) has been approved to be raised from Rs 15,000 to Rs 37,750,” the minutes say. “However, there shall be a review of performance after 5 years, for which, there shall be a committee constituted for this purpose with clear modalities.”

When some NASI fellows stumbled on the minutes a month ago, they initially thought the omission of their academy was a typo. When they took the matter up with the government, they were told it was a conscious decision.

“They decided to drop the NASI so that the number of fellows to benefit from the allowance will be reduced,” an NASI fellow said. 

“It’s not an administrative issue on which a committee made up mostly of bureaucrats can take a call. And the sly manner in which it has been done reeks of deceit. It is unethical.”

Only two of the empowered committee’s 12 members were academics. They were Ashutosh Sharma, science and technology secretary and IIT Kanpur professor, and Anil Sahasrabudhe, chairperson of the All India Council of Technical Education.

Emails sent to Ashutosh Sharma and the spokesperson for the human resource development ministry evoked no response. Sahasrabudhe’s phone was “not reachable”.

Secretary of higher education department R. Subrahmanyam described it as "unwitting omission". "This is an unwitting omission in the minutes of empowered committee and is being rectified," Subrahmanyam said in an e-mail.

An update. Sept 3, 2018.
This report was updated on Monday evening with a statement from the secretary of the higher education department.

A correction. Sept 3, 2018.
In an earlier version of this report on the website, some critical paragraphs had been dropped because of a software glitch. The error is regretted.