Kharagpur: Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT- Kharagpur) has decided to drop a controversial proposal to provide its faculty laptops under a government scheme. The decision was taken only after a professor raised questions about the price of the machines.
Registrar T.K. Ghosal has said that they will not give laptops to faculty under the CPDA scheme. As per sources, the sixth Pay Commission had approved the CPDA - Cumulative Performance Development Allowance scheme meant to provide Rs 3 lakh to each faculty members in all the IITs. The money would have to be utilized over a period of three years ending September 2011.
Last year, in November, the IIT- Kharagpur decided to include in the scheme laptops for use at home. It chose the vendors from which it would buy the machines, based on the recommendations of a computer purchase maintenance and negotiation committee. The panel decides high-cost and bulk computer purchases.
However, a faculty member raised questions over the price of a particular model. The professor, who wanted to purchase an XPS model of Dell under a different government project, pointed out that the IIT was shelling out Rs 28,000 more for each Dell M4500 laptop which, he said, had the same features as an XPS machine.
Moreover, the institute had approved HP, Sony and Dell machines and quoted a price of Rs 1,07,120 for the M4500 Dell model. The professor pointed out that a Dell XPS cost Rs 79,000 in the market, Rs 28,120 lower than the machine chosen by the IIT.
Furthermore, after the controversy, the institute asked the HRD ministry whether laptops could be included in the scheme. The ministry said if the professors had been provided with computers at home under any other project, the institute should not go ahead with the plan.
