Bihar govt releases grant for 2-month backlog salary in varsities, clears budget for 2023-24

The department of education in Bihar late Friday evening released ₹251.56 crore grant for the salary to teachers and employees for the months of June and July in the state universities, constituent colleges and minority/aided institutions.

The letter from higher education director, Rekha Kumari, categorically mentions that a grant of ₹1132.05 crore has been approved for 2023-23 fiscal for salary to those appointed as per norms on the sanctioned posts.

The letter has been seen by HT.

With the entire year’s budget for varsities approved, payment could smoothen in the coming months.

Pataliputra University has got the maximum allocation of ₹38.64 crore for two months, followed by BRA Bihar University (Muzaffarpur) with ₹31.17 crore, LN Mithila University (Darbhanga) ₹29.98 crore and Magadh University (Bodh Gaya) at ₹28.90 crore.

Bihar’s college and varsity teachers and employees had remained without salary and the retired ones without pension since June. Now, with the department releasing the grant, they will get the salary in a few days.

Delayed salary payment is a chronic problem in the state’s universities/colleges and schools and a mechanism to ensure monthly disbursal of salary is yet to be made, as in the government institutions. Even the pension payment and retirement benefits gets stuck in universities for months and leads to court cases.

The government had on Wednesday released ₹281.91 crore grant for pension payment also, but for VKS University (Ara) and LN Mithila university, it is for only June’s pension only, while for other universities it is for June and July both.

For retirement benefits and pension to retired teachers and employees in the universities and colleges, the government has approved the annual budget of ₹1230.22 crore for the 2023-24 fiscal.

KB Sinha, working president of Federation of University Teachers’ Association of Bihar (FUTAB), said delay in payment of retirement benefits and pension was a big problem for the aged retired teachers and employees, many of whom had high medical expenses to meet.

“The former additional chief secretary (education) had told the Patna High Court also that a mechanism will be worked out to ensure regular payment of pension and retirement benefits. The Governor had also asked the universities to streamline it. Sooner it is done, better it will be. After retirement, teachers have to wait for months for their legitimate dues on one pretext or the other. They should not be made to run around and forced to take recourse to courts for the basic requirements,” he said.