The Ministry of Human Resource Development wrote to directors of all the16 Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) on Thursday saying that no view has been taken on segregation of vegetarian and non-vegetarian messes.
The Hindu had reported on Thursday that the Ministry had forwarded a letter of a Madhya Pradesh based grain-trader to IITs on October 15. The letter from one SSK Jain of Katni, who described himself as a ‘swayamsevak’ and BJP supporter, and others demanded the segregation of vegetarian messes as students are influenced by Western culture through non-vegetarian food.
>The Ministry’s covering letter had asked IITs to inform the Ministry of action they may take in this regard. Non-vegetarian food has been stopped in IIT Delhi this year and IIT Madras has a separate vegetarian mess for the last couple of years.
In the letter on Thursday, Under-Secretary AK Singh of Technical Section-I wrote, “… the representations were forwarded to the Institutes in routine manner, without any view having being taken thereon.”(sic)
A Ministry source said, “Jain's letter along with a score others on same issue were sent to the IITs as a routine matter. In RTI age, this is done routinely. Add to this the pressure of Modi's MyGov portal inviting ideas. Further, no such direction can be given as this is an administrative matter to be decided by respective IITs which are autonomous.”
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