Bihar govt withholds salaries, freezes bank accounts of V-Cs for not attending education department's meeting

Patna: In an unprecedented move, the Bihar government has ordered freezing of the bank accounts of all the state-run universities, barring one, and withheld salaries of their vice-chancellors (VC) for allegedly being absent in a review meeting convened by the education department two days ago.

The department’s letter, issued to all VCs barring Kameshwar Singh Darbhanga Sanskrit University, has sought clarification from the VCs concerned as to why they did not attend the meeting to discuss the status of pending examinations and other issues.

“If the department does not get a satisfactory reply from the VCs within two days, it will lodge FIRs against the authorities. Meanwhile, the payment of salaries of VCs has been withheld and instructions have been issued to banks not to operate any accounts of the concerned universities till further order," said the letter, a copy of which is in the possession of PTI.

The letter, issued by Education Secretary Baidyanath Yadav, was also sent to examination controllers of all universities except those of Magadh University and Kameshwar Singh Darbhanga Sanskrit University.

“The department took strong exception to their (VCs) absence from the meeting convened to discuss crucial issues like pendency/delayed of examinations in universities. They (VCs) have failed to discharge their duties as public servants," the letter said.

Despite several attempts, Bihar Education Minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary could not be reached for his comment.

The state government, had in August last year, stopped salaries of the VC and pro-VC of the Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Bihar University in Muzaffarpur for their alleged failure to inspect the educational institutions under their jurisdiction and also for not attending a review meeting convened by the education department.

The department had ordered freezing of the accounts of the top officials and the varsity.