Seven months have passed after BIT-Sindri’s board of governors, the highest decision making body of the institute, was reconstituted, but not a single decision taken by it has been implemented so far.

Since its reconstitution on November 16 last year, the 10-member board headed by former Vinoba Bhave University (VBU) vice chancellor M.P. Singh, has held only one meeting.

At that meeting held in Ranchi on January 21, among the decisions taken were appointment of regular teachers, doctors and grade III & IV staff. Other decisions, like for instance the appointment of contractual teachers, were implemented at the level of the institute. But the state government is yet to okay them.

The members of the board are executive director of Jindal Power Limited O.P. Jha, head of civil engineering department R.P. Sharma, assistant professor of chemical engineering Om Prakash, director of IIM-Raipur B.S. Sahay, director of state science and technology department Arun Kumar, IIT-Delhi’s Ashok Keshri and director of BIT-Sindri S.K. Singh. Two nominated members are from VBU and UGC.

Another board meeting was on the cards where issues like renewal of accreditation of 10 undergraduate and five postgraduate departments, utilisation of students’ fund and academic autonomy were scheduled to be discussed.

“We need to apply for renewal of accreditation of all 10 engineering undergraduate courses — civil, chemical, mining, metallurgical, mechanical, production, electrical, electronics and communication, computer science and IT — for which a nod from the board is required. This apart, we will also apply for accreditation of MTech courses — mechanical, electrical, metallurgical, chemical and civil engineering,” said the BIT-Sindri director S. K. Singh.

Renewal of accreditation from National Board of Accreditation (NBA) is mandatory after every three years.

On autonomy, S. K. Singh said all formalities like obtaining NoCs from the state government and VBU had been completed over a year ago. “We are now waiting for a visit of a team from UGC,” he added.

Chairman of the board M.P. Singh said they would soon organise a board meeting after holding talks with BIT-Sindri authorities. “We can only take decisions, it’s for the state to implement them,” he added.

Arun Kumar promised all cooperation from the state government so that the board meeting could be held. On the government’s failure to act on the decisions taken at the last meeting, he said: “Some of these are long-term proposals. A review of the decisions taken at the last meeting and their implementation will be discussed at the next board meeting.”