New Delhi, Jul 8 (IANS): Over 2,800 faculty positions are lying vacant at 23 Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) campuses across the country, the Lok Sabha was informed on Monday.
"At present, the sanctioned strength of faculty in IITs is 8,856, out of which 6,043 are in position, while 2,813 are lying vacant," Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' informed the Lower House in a written reply.
His reply also added that of the 6,043 faculty in position at the IITs, 149 were for Scheduled Castes (SC) and 21 were for Scheduled Tribes (ST).
"The total sanctioned strength of non-faculty in IITs is 9,465, out of which 1,125 posts are reserved for SCs and 520 for STs. Against this, 888 posts are filled by SCs and 275 by STs. All the IITs maintain reservation roster," Pokhriyal said.
Moreover, of the 7,413 faculty positions at National Institutes of Technology (NIT), 3,211 are lying vacant.
"At present, the sanctioned strength of faculty in NITs is 7,413, out of which 721 are reserved for SCs and 380 for STs. Against this, 4,202 faculties are in position, out of which 404 are from SCs and 139 from STs," the Minister said.
He added that the sanctioned strength for non-faculty positions is 8,163 in NITs out of which only 3,817 posts have been filled.
Pokhriyal added that the institutions have been requested to conduct special recruitment drives to fill these positions at the earliest.
"Occurring of vacancies and filling them up is a continuous process. The onus of filling up the posts lies with the IITs/NITs, which are autonomous bodies, under Acts of Parliament. They have been requested to take steps to ensure that the vacancies are filled up at the earliest," he said.