SVNIT fills key posts after several years

Surat: Crisis-ridden Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology (SVNIT) has got a permanent registrar this month. The post was lying vacant ever since registrar H A Parmar was forced to go on leave after incidents of sexual harassment of girl students by two teachers in 2015 came to light. Thereafter, in-charge officers were being appointed on key posts of registrar and that of his deputies.
Pramod Mathur, a PhD in management from Indian School of Mines (ISM), Dhanbad has taken over as registrar of SVNIT. Mathur was joint registrar of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) - ISM, Dhanbad. K K Singh, formerly assistant registrar, National Institute of Technology, Suratkhal and Rizwan Ahmed, formerly assistant registrar, Indian Institute Information Technology, Design and Manufacturing, Jabalpur are new deputy registrars.
SVNIT had also initiated the process to appoint an assistant registrar. However, assistant registrar’s appointment has been put on hold due to some legal issues, an institute official informed. The interviews for the vacant administrative posts were held in September 2019.
After the sexual harassment case rocked the institute and the registrar’s resignation, SVNIT was being run by in-charge director, registrar and deputy registrars which only delayed appointments and promotions of teaching and non-teaching staff members. The failure on the part of the institute to submit audited accounts to the concerned ministry of the central government held up its grants for two consecutive years from 2016. This created a major financial crisis in the institute and it had failed to pay salaries of its employees on time for a few months. However, the situation has now improved and the SVNIT’s total grants have also been increased.
"Initially, my focus will be to meet manpower requirement. Issue of promotion to existing employees will also be resolved," Mathur said.
Institute officials believe appointments of regular officers on key posts will improve overall administration. "We hope to accelerate development process in the institute. Recruitment on various non-teaching posts will be completed now,” SVNIT director S R Gandhi said.