Thiruvananthapuram: In what could be termed as an example of lack of much-needed bonding between industry and academia, Kerala State Electricity Board Ltd (
KSEB) has effected a five-fold increase in the fee to be levied from engineering colleges to avail the service of the board’s staff as external examiners.
It was APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University (KTU), in a bid to foster the industry-academia linkage in the state, that directed the colleges under it to avail the service of KSEB engineers with minimum five years’ experience for acting as external examiners for conducting viva-voce, especially for electrical engineering students.
The board in an order dated April 7, 2018 had fixed Rs 1,000 as fee for deputing engineers above the rank of assistance executive engineers (civil/electrical) to engineering colleges seeking resource persons from KSEBL. But the board issued another order on May 24, revising the fee from Rs 1,000 plus GST to Rs 5,000 plus GST.
On an average, a college seeking the service of a KSEB official as external examiner would have to engage him for minimum six days for conducting viva-voce for a batch of sixty students. “This means that, the colleges that are already reeling under huge financial burden owing to multiple reasons would suffer. Industry-academia linkage was the very purpose behind the idea of engaging KSEB engineers as external examiners. But even the government-run companies seem to have failed to comprehend the spirit behind such an initiative,” said a source in KTU.
Meanwhile, KSEBL authorities justified the hike by pointing out the precarious financial condition of the board. “The board is now a government company with huge liabilities. The revised fee of Rs 5,000 per day is not a huge amount, considering the fact that senior engineers in the board draw a monthly salary of between Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 1.75 lakh. We are only demanding an amount commensurating to the service of a senior official. Also, the board is supposed to augment maximum non-tariff revenue possible,” said board chairman and managing director N S Pillai.