Controversy over ICSSR meet on summit

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JULY 3. Had the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) not intervened and thrown the rule book at the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), then the forthcoming Indo-Pak. dialogue being organised by the Council on the eve of the Vajpayee-Musharraf summit would have been in violation of the revised guidelines for security clearance issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

Being organised at the ``instance of the Prime Minister's Office,'' the Council apparently sought clearance directly from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) without the mandatory prior approval of the MHRD. It was only when the MHRD raised an objection that a reference was made to it by the ICSSR. The Ministry, it is learnt, also took up the matter with the MEA stating that it should not have entertained the ICSSR proposal when it was not routed properly.

Though the revised guidelines - issued in September 2000 - made it mandatory for a conference drawing participation from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, Pakistan and Sri Lanka to have the approval of the MHA and political clearance from the MEA, proposals for the same had to be routed through the parent Ministry/Department. But in this case, the ICSSR ignored its parent Ministry and directly approached the MEA.

Even prior to the revised guidelines, it was mandatory for all universities/deemed to be universities and autonomous organisations to seek the prior approval of the MHRD as the administrative Ministry for hosting international conferences.

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Section  : National
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