The HRD Ministry is believed to have hauled up UGC Chairman Ved Prakash for reportedly hitting out at the flagship RUSA programme before a Parliamentary panel meet here recently.
He is understood to have contended that the Ministry- piloted Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) programme was performing the same task of funding state institutes for upgrade like UGC and therefore was undermining the latter's role.
He is also said to have argued that since the bulk of funds is now going to RUSA, UGC's endeavour to push for research and innovation could be hampered.
His views, however, did not go down well with the Ministry which expressed disappointment for the stand taken by him at the Parliamentary Standing Committee meeting on May 26, sources said.
The Ministry in a letter to him said that the officials present should have been seen as a cohesive group, supporting the programmes of the government, they said, adding the Ministry should not have been seen as a disjointed unit.
The UGC chairman's use of certain words was also considered inappropriate by the Ministry while reprimanding him, the sources said.
Officials said Prakash had visited the Ministry later to clear his stand on the presentations made by him.
HRD Minister Smriti Irani, who was in China during the standing committee meeting, was briefed by the ministry officials soon after her return.
