MINUTES OF THE GENERAL BODY MEETING OF THE FACULTY ASSOCIATION HELD ON 19 FEBRUARY 1999 The President expressed his regret at the sad demise of the following members of the association. 1. Prof. H. S. Chandrasekharaiah, High Voltage Engineering, on 16th November 1998. 2. Dr. H. S. Seshaprasad, Scientific Officer, High Voltage Engineering, on 9th November 1998 3. Smt Asha Guruprasad, Scientific Officer, Center for Atmospheric and Oceanic Studies, on 4th October 1998 The members of the Faculty Association observed one minute silence as a mark of respect, and expressed their sympathies to the families of the deceased. Mr. H. Krishnamurthy, Secretary, read out the minutes of the General Body meeting held on 29 July 1998. Acceptance of the minutes was proposed by Prof. S. V. Subrahmanyam, and seconded by Dr. T. A. Abinandanan. In his remarks, the President Prof. Ananthakrishna made a mention of the following 1. The FA is a body through which problems related to the faculty interests, both short term and long term, could be aired and discussed with the administration. 2. The FA would like to ensure more transparency in the administration, and would like to assist the administration in making the rules relating to faculty service widely available. 3. The recommendations of the Prof.\ U.\ R.\ Rao committee are currently with the cabinet, but have not been posted for any specific cabinet meeting. He said that as soon as it is approved by the cabinet, it will be implemented for the faculty. 4. The faculty should actively pursue improvement of infrastructure in the institute. In addition, he also mentioned that an alteration in the composition of the executive committee should be discussed, because the current representation in the executive committee is not proportional. Currently, the are 296 faculty in Category 1, 136 in Category 2, 78 in Category 3 and 35 in Category 4. However, all categories have equal representation in the executive committee. The Secretary Mr. H. Krishnamurthy presented the annual report. He made the following points. With regard to the implementation of the new pay scales, the director announced and ad hoc payment of Rs. 25,000/- for the faculty, and also an ad hoc increase of 30 % in the monthly salary as sought by the FA. At a meeting with the previous director, Prof. Padmanaban, the following issues were discussed. 1. Improvement in the quality of work and the quality of life for the faculty has been discussed with the director. 2. The need for greater transparency in the administration, especially in regard to rules governing the conditions of service for the faculty, has been discussed with the director. The director agreed that there is a need for greater transparency, and it is necessary for the FA to pursue this in the coming year. 3. With regard to departmental issues, the FA expressed the opinion that faculty and COP meetings in the departments should be held regularly, and minutes of the meetings recorded. The director agreed with this view. 4. FA felt that it is desirable that the chairman from the department to be chosen from among the faculty in that department. 5. FA felt that there should be more three bedroom apartments built for the faculty in the institute, since the availability was less than the requirement. The director has proposed the construction of new houses to make up the shortfall. At a meeting with the new director Prof. Mehta, the FA executive committee discussed the above issues. These were also issues of concern to the director, and he agreed to look into them. In addition, the FA brought up the issue of rationalisation of procedures and overheads for CSIC, SID, etc. He also suggested that the FA could assist the new registrar in providing greater transparency with respect to the rules and regulations governing the faculty. The Election Results were announced by the Returning Officer, Prof. N. C. Sivaprakash. He first thanked the members of the executive committee who were completing their term for their efforts. 1. There were two valid nominations received in Category 1, Prof. A. Surolia and Prof. S. Manohar, and these were declared elected unopposed. 2. There were two valid nominations in Category 2, Dr. V. Kumaran and Dr. B. Ananthanarayan, and these were declared elected unopposed. 3. There were no nominations in Category 3, and nominations were sought from the floor. Mr. C. Sivakumara, Technical Officer, Solid State and Structural Chemistry Unit, and Mr. P. Balachandra, Scientific Officer, Management Studies, were nominated and seconded from the floor. 4. There was one valid nomination, Mr. Adinarayana Murthy, for Category 4, and he was declared elected unopposed. The second nomination was sought from the floor, and Mr. Srinivas, Technical Officer, Physics, was nominated and seconded from the floor. The Secretary, Mr. H. Krishnamurthy, informed the association that no money had been spent during the current year, since all the activities of the association had been funded by agencies such as JB Travels, Tata Book House, etc. Discussion items from the floor: 1. Mr. Vasu, SSCU suggested that the term of the executive committee could be increased to 2 years from the present 1 year. However, it was felt that the term of a member would then become 4 years, which is too long a period. 2. It was felt that there should be a membership drive undertaken by the association. 3. With regarding to the delay in the Pay Commission recommendations, the President called for concerted action by all the faculty associations of IITs, IIMs and IISc for speedy implementation. He also suggested that there should be links with all the associations. 4. The Faculty Association passed a resolution requesting the director to pay the arrears amounting from a 30 \% increase in the salary from January 1996, and also to provide TA/DA to all the faculty as per the norms for other Central Government employees.