By Gunjan SharmaNew Delhi, Jan 14 (PTI) Pending projects thatrepetitively missed deadlines and over 100 vacant positionshave stalled research work at the Indian Council of SocialScience Research (ICSSR) under the HRD Ministry.
No new research projects have been sanctioned in the past11 months since Brij Bihar Kumar, the current chairman ofICSSR, took charge.
"There have been pending projects which missed multipledeadlines for over three years and work has still not beencompleted. It was important to streamline these as alreadyefforts, manpower and money had been invested," Kumar told PTIin an interview.
"Also out of the 208 positions at the council over 100 ofthem are vacant including multiple top positions. How can wego on sanctioning new research projects till this is sorted,"he asked.
Kumar also pointed out that the functioning of thecouncil was not up to the mark and infrastructural andlogistical issues requirements were ignored for long.
"There has been repetitive research on certain subjectsand the already completed projects have not been updated foryears. Research was not being completed in a time-boundmanner, so obviously it was not feasible to jump the gun andsanction new projects to meet the same fate," Kumar said.
He, however, is hopeful that by April things will be backon track.
"Once appointments are over and backlog of pendingprojects is cleared by April, we will sanction new projects ondifferent subjects of research and seek applications," hesaid. PTI GJSZMN.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.