Bihar withholds salary of over 1,000 staffers for being absent

Among those whose salaries have been stalled, 630 teachers and non-teaching staffers are working in B R Ambedkar Bihar University, Muzaffarpur, 190 in B N Mandal University, Madhepura, and 93 in Veer Kunwar Singh University, Ara. The action was taken after the education department’s additional chief secretary K K Pathak sought details of attendance of teachers and non-teaching staffers in universities of Bihar.

Last month, Pathak had held a review meeting of Bihar universities and had found that besides Patna University and Nalanda Open University, sessions of at least seven more universities had been running behind schedule.

An education department official said, “We have withheld salaries of absent teachers and non-teaching staffers to make them accountable. We have to effect educational reforms. Unless we deal with absenteeism and increase the number of classes, it is difficult to regularise the session.”

The official conceded that the education department had to put Raj Bhavan’s four-year degree programme decision on hold because of delayed academic sessions.

Earlier this month, Bihar Governor Rajendra Arlekar had approved the Ordinance and Regulations for the Bachelor of Arts/ Science/ Commerce (Honours) 4-Year Programme. However, the education department wrote to V-Cs of state universities, asking them not to start the four-year bachelor courses with honours in arts, science and commerce, citing several constraints.