University teachers, staff go without salaries since March

Patna: The teachers and non-teaching staff of different universities and colleges in the state have not been paid their salaries since March creating acute financial hardships for them and their family members.Expressing its concern over delay of disbursement of monthly salaries and even pension to the working and retired staff of the universities, the Federation of University Teachers’ Associations of Bihar (Futab) pointed out that the university staff are always punished without any fault of their own. It said while the governor-cum-chancellor has asked the teachers to engage at least five classes every day and the universities have transferred hundreds of teachers to the newly started degree colleges in more than 200 blocks, the state education department has withheld the payment of their salaries for the last two months.“How will these transferred teachers fulfil their responsibilities at new places of work without having money,” asked Futab working president Kanhaiya Bahadur Sinha and its general secretary Sanjay Kumar Singh, MLC.When contacted, state higher education director N K Agrawal, told this newspaper that the file relating to the salary grants is pending with the finance department as it has raised objections on some points. The main objection to the allotment of fresh grants to the universities for the 2026-27 year is the non-submission of utilisation certificates of previous grants by the universities. Moreover, three to four universities, including Patna University, have not yet sent their annual budgets approved by their statutory bodies so far.Agrawal, however, said the education department is seized of the issue and has requested the finance department to clear the pending files, even conditionally, so that the salary grants may be released to the universities.The teacher leaders further pointed out that earlier they had urged the govt to emulate the Madhya Pradesh govt model for ensuring regular payment of pension to the retired university staff who need the money most for meeting their medical expenses. Even the present chief secretary was reportedly convinced of this suggestion, but nothing was done in this respect so far, they rued.