Srinagar, Feb 04: Technical Education Department has appointed “ineligible” principals in several polytechnic colleges in the state, with some of them not even having engineering degrees, insiders allege.
A lecturer at a polytechnic college, insiders from the department, citing All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), norms said, “A candidate becomes eligible to be appointed as a principal only after years of experience first as a lecturer and then as a Head of Department (HOD).”
“The norms have been thrown to the dustbin while appointing the principals of the colleges. Some of them do not even have engineering degrees. How can they head the colleges? As per AICTE norms, they are not eligible for the posts,” an insider said.
“As per norms, preference should have been given to postgraduates and those having higher qualifications, but ironically some candidates having a postgraduate degree in food technology have also been made principals.”
Appointment of principals to some of the colleges has been a “total chaos”, a top official in the Technical Education Department with the principals appointed to the colleges appointed “under political influence” as per the insiders.
“Some principals who do not even possess engineering degrees have been made principals on the basis of political affiliations. This is for the first time that the people from non-engineering backgrounds have been made elevated. It is clearly a violation of norms,” said an insider.
They said one of the appointed principals was a “postgraduate in wood technology”.
Director Technical Education, Shabnum Shah Kamili, said, “A principal who is from a non-engineering background was appointed to a polytechnic college, as he was senior among the HODs.”
“Nobody has a complaint with anybody,” she said.
She said, “Nobody has been appointed during my tenure, but my predecessors have not done anything wrong either.”
Asked whether the AICTE norms should have guided the appointment of principals, Kamili remarked, “It is not the AICTE norms that guide us much as our own recruitment rules.”
Minister for Technical Education, Imran Ansari, and Commissioner Secretary of the Department, Hilal Ahmad Parray could not be contacted.
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