Unfreeze accounts of universities, guv asks banks

PATNA: Three days after the education department froze the bank accounts of the state universities and stopped the salaries of the vice-chancellors (VCs), the governor's secretariat instructed the banks to unfreeze the accounts following a three-hour-long meeting at Raj Bhavan here on Sunday.

During the meeting with the VCs of all the universities, governor-cum-chancellor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar had asserted that he would instruct the banks and treasury to unfreeze the accounts of the varsities and release the payments of the staff.

He also said henceforward Raj Bhawan will convene a meeting of the vice-chancellors and other university officials to discuss the academic issues, in which the education department will also be invited to participate.

The education department had on Thursday frozen the bank accounts of the universities and stopped the salaries of the VCs for skipping a review meeting convened by it. The VCs and other officials did not attend the said review meeting following a directive by the chancellor who had also asked them not to attend a two-day orientation programme convened by the department on March 2 and 3.

Following that the education department sent a strong-worded letter to all vice-chancellors barring those of two universities, mentioning the order to freeze the bank accounts and withhold the salaries of the VCs, and even lodge FIRs against them in case of non-receipt of satisfactory reply within two days. Taking cognizance of the letter, the chancellor conveyed his displeasure through a letter to the state's chief secretary, before convening the meeting on the day to discuss the issues at length.

On the day, the chancellor took stock of the latest position of the academic calendar and pending examinations in different universities, besides the problems faced by them in following the time schedule. It was decided that the university management and information system of the all the varsities would be strengthened by acquiring relevant data so that the academic and administrative works do not suffer.