Unpaid for 3 mths, 5k MU employees in dire straits

Gaya: More than 5000 Magadh University (MU) employees including 3000 Grade III and Grade IV staff are facing acute financial crisis as they have not been paid their salaries ever since the new government of the Grand Alliance took over in November last year.
The last payment was made in October 2015. Financial crunch has hit the employees facing health problems and dependants studying outside the state the most.
"The average age of an MU employees is more than 50 years (no recruitment has been made for more than a decade ), and their health condition remains a major issue. In case of non-payment of salary how can they take care of their health,"rued a university employee.
Asked about non-payment of salary to teaching and non-teaching employees, MU registrar Sita Ram Singh said salary will be paid as soon as the varsity gets grant from the state government. "The university hopes to get the grant by February 10, but I would be in a position to say something only after talking to the officials of the education department," said the registrar.
"To give some relief, the university has paid salary to the employees based at the headquarters from its internal resources," Singh added.
According to Kanhaiya Bahadur Sinha, working president of the Federation of the University Teachers' Association (FUTA), salary non-payment is a state-level issue, as none of the university employees of the state have been paid salary for the last three months and the indifference of the government is a matter of grave concern.
Sources in the government said some of the universities of the state have not submitted utilisation certificate for previous salary grants and as such the finance department is insisting on getting utilisation certificates before releasing fresh grants.
Referring to the utilisation certificate alibi for non-payment of salary, Kanhaiya Bahadur said the government is adopting double standards on the issue of utilisation certificates.
"When the Centre wants the state government to submit utilisation certificates for Central grants, the state raises a hue and cry. But when it comes to universities, the government insists on utilisation certificates. Moreover, the employees cannot be blamed for non-submission of utilisation certificates," said Sinha.
The Federation leader said as per his information, utilisation certificate is just an alibi and payments are not being made as the state coffers were empty. If the government cannot pay salary to university employees when more than 60% teaching posts are vacant, how will it pay if vacancies, as per the government's promise are filled, asked the Federation leader.