While the electioneering stopped on Thursday across the state for the seventh and final phase of the poll on June 1, the showdown between the education department and the state varsities, which started ahead of the election announcement and brought the Raj Bhawan and the department face to face, did not.
All through the electioneering, one striking aspect was the way education remained a big issue, with the matter of higher education turmoil reaching the Patna High Court and still remaining unresolved, leaving thousands of teachers and employees as also guest teachers without salary and retired ones without pension for over four months.
The schools, too, witnessed resentment all through the period over timing and later running of classes in extreme heat waves, prompting intervention from the Governor and the CM after several students fainted and the Opposition as well as the NDA alliance partners went on the offensive.
Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav was quick to describe the situation as a sign of CM Nitish Kumar loosening grip. “Now the Governor is giving orders to the administration and holding review meetings. That points to something big in the offing post-June 4 (when the results of the Lok Sabha elections are announced). He hardly moved out for campaigning in the last phase and seems worried about the fate of his party,” he said.
Also read: BSEB Scrutiny registrations for 10th, 12th Compartment Results 2024 to begin from June 2, here's how to apply
BJP leaders also admit that the problems in the schools and colleges, affecting lakhs of teachers, employees, and their happening, may have some bearing on the election, but are confident that the NDA would still sweep Bihar, while the Opposition is predicting its own sweep.
However, the latest flare-up is over the new pay system the education department has devised for the teachers and the state universities, while compliance with the court order to clear backlog payments is still awaited.
Also read: KCET results 2024 released at cetonline.karnataka.gov.in, direct link and how to check scores
After the indefinite strike stirred by the Patna University teachers' association and the employees union over the latest order to pay salary and pension directly in the accounts of the employees, other universities have also raised concern over the excruciating delay in clearing the four-month backlog despite Patna High Court order earlier this month.
The department, on the other hand, has announced its plan and deployed officials for preparing, checking, and approving salaries of teachers and employees of the state universities and colleges under them at the level of higher education directorate, even as the wait for the teachers and pensioners gets longer.
“Instead of officials at the university level for the same job, the department officials have now been authorized,” says the department order signed by higher education director Rekha Kumari, which has been sent to the finance department and others concerned.
Also read: UP B.Ed JEE Admit Card 2024: Hall tickets released on official website, direct link to download and other details
However, universities have voiced their concern over the new arrangement initiated without complying with the Patna HC order. JP University (Chapra) registrar Ranjeet Kumar also wrote to the education minister, expressing surprise over the meeting called to review the varsity's budget passed two and half months ago at the Senate meeting chaired by Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar in the capacity of the Chancellor and attended by 14 legislators and university authorities.
“The information about the Senate and Syndicate meetings was also timely sent to the secretary and higher education director, but they did not participate as members. The Budget was passed unanimously. Two months later, a junior department officer disregarding customary protocol directly wrote to the VC for a review meeting on May 28 and still when the officials reached there, the director categorically said that there was a clear order from the additional chief secretary that there would be no meeting without VC. The VC had agreed to join the meeting online, but that was also not done,” he added.
Maintaining that the university would reconsider its decision to attend future meetings called by the department due to the humiliating behaviour, he said that It was merely an attempt to satisfy his ego at the cost of institutions established through Acts.
Kameshwar Singh Darbhanga Sanskrit University (KSDSU) Registrar Dinanath Shah also wrote to the higher education director on Thursday for the release of the remaining part of the approved budget for fiscal 2023-24 and the current fiscal 2024-25, and registered a strong protest over the new system of salary payment, describing it “contrary to the provisions in the Bihar state universities Act, 1976 and attack on the autonomy of the universities”.
“Despite the HC putting in abeyance the freeze order on the department, no funds have been released in the accounts for payment of backlog salary and pension. The department also took a coercive step in violation of the court order by stopping the salary of the VC from putting forward his genuine concerns at the meeting,” he pointed out.
“The HC had directed the ACS to release the entire backlog fund of last fiscal within 10 days, but the department initiated an 'unwarranted exercise' of reviewing the current fiscal budget. Yet all the officials were there, except the VC. In a superficial exercise of power, the department insisted on VC's presence and reconvened the meeting on May 21. In the light of HC's order to sort out issues amicably, the VC made himself available. But such meetings would have been helpful had they been convened before the budget presentation in the Senate and Syndicate or the department officials would have attended those meetings, chaired by the Chancellor. Once the budget is approved, the exercise is meaningless,” wrote the KSDSU registrar.
