We oppose disinvestment, says Agashe

pune: although highly-placed sources within the film and television institute (ftii) here claim that the union ministry of information and broadcasting has called for the financial evaluation of the institute, ftii director dr mohan agashe said he was not aware of any official communique in this regard. while acknowledging that the disinvestment proposal of the geetakrishnan committee had been a subject of discussion between the ftii and the ministry authorities, agashe asserted: "we have made it clear that we are against any such move." established in 1961, the ftii's most lucrative asset, running into tens of crores of rupees, is its prime real estate of 47 acres in pune's upmarket prabhat road area.the expenditure reforms commission, headed by former finance secretary k.p. geetakrishnan, had recommended in its final report last year that both the ftii and the kolkata-based satyajit ray film and television institute "may be handed over to the film industry" and that "the modalities of transfer be worked out to safeguard the government's investments." agashe pointed out that in october 2000 itself, he had informed the ministry that the geetakrishnan committee's recommendation did not seem feasible. in his letter to the ministry, he had said that while the industry was not "organised enough" to take over the ftii, there was a need for "right-sizing" of the institute and the modification of recruitment rules for the faculty to ensure proper inflow and outflow of professionals. the government's seriousness on the disinvestment proposal can be gauged from the fact that yet another high-level meeting has been convened by i&b secretary pawan chopra to discuss the recommendations in new delhi on december 28. heads of 20 institutes, including the ftii, have been advised to be present for the meeting. agashe admitted that ftii was facing numerous problems, including an acute shortage of teaching staff. as a result, it had been forced to postpone admissions by at least three months. "apart from a backlog of 64 students, we have selected 40 students for fresh admissions. we are unable to start the new academic year till the faculty strength improves," he said. agashe regretted that over the years, the i&b ministry had ignored various recommendations made by the previous committees to improve the infrastructure and finances of ftii. "the institute would not have come to such a pass had at least some of these recommendations been accepted," he said.