Darjeeling, July 29: Climbers blamed the waning interest of the Centre and the state government for the state of affairs in the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute.

Although the institute was set up largely because of the personal initiative of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and chief minister B.C. Roy in 1954, their successors have not been as keen about the institution.

“The Prime Minister has always been the president of the executive committee. The visits stopped and in the mid-90s, the Prime Minister stopped being the president of the committee and handed over the baton to the defence minister,” an Everester said.

The change of guard seems to have had a spiralling effect with the annual meeting of the executive committee becoming irregular. Col J.S. Dhillon, the principal, admitted that the last meeting was held in Calcutta in July 2005. “The one before that had been in 1998,” he added.

The full tenure of the previous principal had passed without any executive committee meetings.