Shillong, Aug. 20: The seventh Indian Institute of Management is ready for inauguration, but neither officials of the Meghalaya government nor mandarins in the Union human resource development ministry seem to know when classes will begin.

The J.D. Rymbai government intends to hand over the building at the temporary site, Mayurbhanj in Nongthymmai, by September 30. The government has also completed all the formalities — including acquisition of 50 acres at Mawdiangdiang, near the New Shillong township — for the permanent complex.

The Union human resource development ministry has, however, said classes won’t begin this year. Pooran Singh, the director of technical education in the human resource development ministry, said over phone from Delhi that “one more meeting” needs to be held to clear the decks for the IIM to open its doors.

On when that meeting would be held, he passed the buck to Ravi Mathur, joint secretary in the ministry and the person “in charge” of the IIM Shillong project.

Mathur could not be contacted, but his secretary said Singh was the “person (authorised to take a decision) in this regard”.

Meghalaya chief secretary S.K. Tiwari, too, pleaded ignorance. “I don’t know what is happening with the IIM. Even I want to know,” he said.

The notification for admission to various IIMs for next year has already been issued and the common aptitude test (CAT) is slated for November 16.

Sudeep Banerjee, edu-cation secretary in the human resource development ministry, recently inspected the temporary and permanent Shillong IIM sites and expressed satisfaction over the progress of work.

A source in the state government said the Union ministry had not given any reason for not making an effort to start classes this year. “Leave alone using the temporary building, the ministry has not even issued any notification for the appointment of a director for the IIM. The ministry has also not completed designing the permanent site, which it wanted to do through its own architect.”

The decision to set up the country’s seventh IIM in Shillong was announced following a meeting between Union minister Arjun Singh and former Meghalaya education minister Mukul Sangma in 2004.

Assam was one of the contenders for the IIM but lost the race because it has an Indian Institute of Technology.