Sibal meets IIT faculty members, says all issues resolved India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Union Human Resource Minister today held a meeting with faculty members of the Indian Institutes of Technology and said all issues have been resolved. Sibal's initiative was aimed at ending the deadlock between IIT faculty and the Central Government. Briefing the media after the meeting, Sibal said: "All issues have been resolved. There's no disagreement, we're on same side." Earlier, IIT Faculty Federation President, Professor M Thenmozhi, had written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh complaining about of Sibal's remarks at press conference. Sibal had said: "We are hoping that there will be Nobel laureates coming out of our IIT system. But Nobel laureates don't go on hunger strikes. There is a certain decorum expected from people of the calibre of these IITs." In his letter to Singh, Thenmozi said that Sibal's comments could affect the faculty's international reputation. On September 24 the IIT faculty had gone on a fast opposing some of the provisions in the pay structure recommended by the Sixth Pay Commission. The Sixth Pay Commission had recommended a 40 per cent cap on promotion of professors to senior grade and contractual appointment of Ph.D holders at the entry level.