No decision on exempting IITs from faculty reservation, Ramesh Pokhriyal tells Rajya Sabha

New Delhi: The government has not taken any decision yet on a panel's recommendations that the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) should be exempted from reservations in faculty appointments, the Parliament was informed on Thursday.The committee submitted its report last June and it was circulated to all the ministries concerned and their comments have been received, Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal said in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha."The government has not yet taken a decision on the recommendations of the committee," Pokhriyal said.An eight-member committee comprising IIT directors was asked to suggest measures on effective implementation of reservation policies not only in the recruitment but also for admissions.In a report submitted to the government in June, the panel said that the IITs should be exempted from reservations because they were "institutes of national importance and are involved in research".The committee had also noted that the expectations on the faculty from the IITs were very high due to the quality and standards of education, and rather than specific quotas, diversity issues should be addressed through outreach campaigns and targeted recruitment of faculty.