Unmesh Gujarathi
Sprouts Exclusive

Get an inside look at the Government of Gujarat’s Institute of Infrastructure Technology Research and Management (IITRAM) ‘s unethical practices and how they impact students.

The Institute of Infrastructure Technology Research and Management (IITRAM) is an autonomous technical university established by the Government of Gujarat and is operated by an Independent Board of Governors (BoG). A high official of the Gujarat Government is a member of the BoG. So far, the Institute operates almost entirely on the back of funding from the State Government. Ironically, even though IITRAM has been in existence for several years, the key posts are held by individuals in in-charge roles. Further, all the officials holding in-charge roles are from only one institute which is the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar.

The in-charge Director General (Dr. Amit Prashant), in-charge Director (Dr. Sameer Dalvi), and in-charge Registrar (Rambabu Bhagat) are all regular employees of IIT Gandhinagar and only visit IITRAM less than once a week.

The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) of the Govt of India says that there is no additional pay for holding additional charges of posts in PSUs /Autonomous Bodies, etc.

On one hand, these irregularities are going on with the full knowledge of the Gujarat State Government, and on the other hand, the basic issues of the students are ignored. The SIT has learnt that the students who graduated in the year 2022 have not yet received their final mark sheets. The convocation has also not been held to date for those who have graduated in the year 2022. The money spent on additional remuneration for in-charge positions should better be spent on students.

The Sprouts Special Investigation Team (SIT) has found out that Dr. Amit Prashant, Dr. Sameer Dalvi and Rambabu Bhagat have been receiving extra remuneration for holding additional posts at IITRAM. These three individuals are getting a large honorarium of INR 90000/-, 70000/-, and 50000/- per month respectively, causing loss to the exchequer. Otherwise also, if these positions were given to the internal faculty members, there would be no extra expenditure on IITRAM.

The SIT has also found that the Gujarat State Government is fully aware of such misappropriation of public funds because a high state government official is the member of the BoG of IITRAM and there have been complaints to the different officials of the Gujarat State Government regarding the misappropriation of public fund by the officials of IITRAM. Therefore, the Gujarat State Government is letting the BoG of IITRAM wilfully cause loss to the exchequer in violation of set government rules.

The irregularities at IITRAM are not limited to only the misappropriation of public funds, the SIT has also found that some appointments are also made in violation of government rules. As per the government rules, the officials who are in in-charge positions should not indulge in the appointment process of regular employees.

However, some of the in-charge officials have been taking part in the recruitment of regular employees like Assistant Registrars, Deputy Registrar and Registrar. They have taken part in the advertisement, shortlisting and interviewing candidates in the absence of the regular Director General (Prof. Bhrigu Nath Singh) who is supposed to join in a few weeks.

The Sprouts team tried to contact Prof. Sudhir K. Jain, who is the Chairman, IITRAM and also the Vice Chancellor of BHU, to get his version but could not contact him.-