PATNA: The teachers and non-teaching staff of different universities in the state are in financial straits again. They have not been paid their salaries and pension for the last three months, making their lives miserable.
The condition of retired university staff is worse as most of them, in their eighties and nineties, depend on their monthly pension for medical expenses and house rent besides groceries and other items of daily use.
L N Mithila University (LNMU) retired teacher Sushil Chandra Govil is facing difficult times in getting proper medical care for his ailing wife who is on dialysis. Another retired teacher, I C Pathak of the same university, is also in deep trouble as both his wife and son died recently due to lack of proper medical treatment, said sources.
Former principal of C M Science College-Darbhanga, Sangeet Kumar Verma, told this newspaper that most teachers of LNMU, working as well as retired, are facing great mental agony due to irregular payments. They did not get money even during the festivals of Diwali and Chhath this year. They had got their last salary (pension) after a gap of four months and again they were deprived of their salary for the last three months, he said.
Magadh University Teachers’ Association former general secretary Satyadeo Narain Sharma expressed his deep anguish over the non-payment of salary and pension of university staff for some time. “Nobody knows as to when will the teachers receive their next salary as the vice-chancellor of the university has gone on a month’s medical leave and the financial adviser has also quit,” he said.
The associations of both teachers and non-teaching staff of Patna University have already threatened to launch an agitation from December 15, if their demands, including payment of arrears of their salaries, were not fulfilled by December 14.
Federation of University Teachers’ Associations of Bihar working president K B Sinha said delay in payment of salary and pension was not only ethical but illegal also.
Education minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary said he would look into the problem and ensure earliest payment of salaries and pension to all the university staff. “At no cost, teachers or non-teaching staff would be allowed to starve when the government has already made the budgetary provision for the payments,” he said.
