Bhubaneswar, June 2: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Friday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention in conferring the status of ‘Institute of National Importance’ on National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER), Bhubaneswar.
“While IISERs have been designated as Institute of National Importance, degrees of NISER students continue to be awarded by deemed university Homi Bhaba National Institute (HBNI) and the academic activities are being governed by HBNI. Thus unlike the IISERs, the NISER Academic Council and the Board of Governors currently do not have the autonomy to take and implement the academic and administrative decisions,” Patnaik said in his letter to Modi.
He further said that not having the status of Institute of National Importance may also prevent NISER from competing in the MHRD selection of world-class institutions.
“This would be grossly unfair as in terms of research contributions NISER is among the top five institutions in the country,” Patnaik said.
“The state government would strongly recommend that NISER be recognised as an Institute of National Importance by an act of the Parliament at the earliest,” he said.
A draft bill for the same prepared by NISER has been sent to the Centre five years back, but no action was taken by the Department of Atomic Energy in this regard. PNN