By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net,
Bhopal: In a bid to bolster its sagging image, the Bhopal-based Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, (MANIT), a premier educational institute of India, has decided to go overboard and reach out to the public at large through the media regarding its Vision and Mission.
Dogged by scams, corruption charges and controversies over the last few years, the MANIT administration has girded up its loin to provide justice to one and all and transparency in its working to stop wagging tongues from ruining the institute of national importance.
Addressing a Press conference here on Thursday its Director Dr. R. P. Singh, Ph.D. (Electronics Engg.), declared that MANIT looks forward to become a “Centre of Global Technical Knowledge”, wherein there is a creation, assimilation, evaluation and application of knowledge.
Dr. Singh said MANIT’s strategies are for effectively meeting the ever-increasing challenges of technology, human resources and the responsibility towards the society. MANIT no longer wishes to be an Institute in isolation existing on top of a hill, but wishes to reach out to the city and the country while playing its role in bringing out young technologists, scientists and engineers, to make the world a better place. MANIT looks forward to Public Participation in its research, institutional partnerships in educational, technological and administrative functions, he added.
He said that MANIT, which was formerly known as MACT (Maulana Azad College of Technology), is working towards the initiation of industry-Institute Linkages to develop problem solving capabilities at analytical and experimental techniques.
The MANIT Board of Governors led by its chairman A. N. Singh, a retired Director General of Madhya Pradesh Police, members Vipin Mullick and Khalid Rauf, both alumni of MANIT, and Deans of various faculties such as Dr. Gayatri Agnihotri, Dr. P. Suryanarayan, Dr. D. M. Deshpande, Dr. R. K. Dube, Dr. G. Dixit, Dr. V.K. Khare along with Ms Savita Raje (Landscape Architect), Public Relations Officer, were present at the Press conference.
Dr. Singh said MANIT’s Vision is to produce technical professionals abreast with competencies, mind-set and ethical values synchronous with the futuristic requirements of global business so as to strengthen the national economy.
He informed that the institutional Mission Statements includes: (i).to design, develop and implement curricula of various programmes using dynamic & responsive processes, in tune with the needs of the global industry and economy; (ii). to develop personality of all learners, faculty & employees in order to infuse with pro-active leadership, innovativeness, entrepreneurial abilities, required competencies relevant to the profession and interpersonal communications; (iii).to induce in engineers/ technologists and trainees a mind-set full of creativity to pursue excellence with customer focus, accountability and caring for environment & people; (iv). Ensure an environment where students, faculty and staff are encouraged to enhance their intellectual curiosity and improve their technical and professional skills through Continuous Development Programmes & (v). to promote reforms in the assessment/ evaluation processes, ensuring reliable and valid assessment and certification of abilities of learners.
Chairman A. N. Singh said that MANIT Board of Governors’ Vision is to work towards the development of MANIT as an institute with global visibility, by generating an environment that nurtures the inherent creativity in the youth and by a sustainable maintenance of quality in all the aspects of the Institute. The endeavour is to develop MANIT as a sustainable Innovation Incubator which is sought after at an international level. To make the presence of MANIT indispensable at National level, to make MANIT act like a life-giving, throbbing heart, situated in the State of Madhya Pradesh, the heart of India, he added.
While talking about the Mission, Singh said the Board is committed to achieve the above through time-sensitive action plans and concentrated efforts and focused approach. It envisages a sustainable growth that would raise the Institute to the heights of glory it deserves.
Replying to a question Singh assured that law will take its own course against those who are found guilty after investigations, are completed in the various scams which are underway at present. “None will be spared to go scot free”, he asserted.
It may be recalled here that MANIT in the 1960s when it was called MACT after it was transferred from the Polytechnic building to the present new campus was embroiled in much controversy, series of corruption charges and high-handedness of the management. Then the Governor of Madhya Pradesh used to be the chairman of the Board of Governors while the Principal of MACT was all powerful to run the day-to-day affairs of the college. The then Principal of the college J. N. Moudgil exploiting this adopted dictatorial attitude towards students and staff alike which was the root cause of all the ills that pervaded the campus then. He ran the college as his fiefdom in an arbitrary manner without having any regards to the laid down rules.
Things continued to deteriorate in the campus after he joined the College in 1962. He terminated the services of many staff members from peons to professors’ level, who did not see eye to eye with him and opposed many of his financial bungling in the construction of buildings in the new campus, on flimsy grounds without taking prior sanction of the Board of Governors. In some cases of dismissal of employees when court demanded ratified copy of the termination orders it was done in back dates. He got the service rules amended arbitrarily to strike at will at his opponents who did not approve the plunder of building funds and other gross violation of rules of the college.
The student community was also victim of harassment following Principal Moudgil’s many whimsical orders. When all limits of students’ patience crossed they decided to settle score with him. In 1968 students from the hostels in the dead of night rushed to Moudgil’s official residence in the campus and laid a siege around it. They demanded of him to come out to listen to their woes. When he did not respond to their calls the students disconnected the electric and telephone lines and ransacked the house. They pushed his car out of the garage and set it ablaze to release their pent up anger against him. Police rushed thereafter to rescue Moudgil and his family which had taken refuge in a bathroom of the house.
Later, Moudgil was forced to go on long leave and an inquiry was ordered against him but nothing concrete came out. Thus, he went scot free despite all his acts of omissions and commissions which he committed with impunity.
So, controversies plaguing MANIT is not new phenomena as the chain of events of 1960s reveal it amply. However, many including the present administration may not be in the know of things of its chequered past. It has been stated here briefly to take lessons from the past unsavoury incidents. ([email protected])