PATNA: More than 33,000 non-teaching staff of nine universities and 250 colleges are on the verge of starvation owing to non-payment of their salaries for the last four months.
Expressing their grave concern over the alleged callous attitude of the state government towards the college and university staff, the leaders of the Bihar State University and College Employees’ Federation regretted that most employees were finding it difficult to make their both ends meet due to financial crunch.
The shopkeepers have stopped giving ration, etc on credit any more, they said. They have stopped paying school fees of their children who may face problems in the schools. Pensioners are the worst hit as they have no money to buy even medicines, they said.
The leaders, however, asserted that the employees would not be cowed down by the pressure tactics of the government and continue their indefinite strike until all their demands were fulfilled. The statewide indefinite strike launched by them continued for the sixth consecutive day on Tuesday.
The strike has already paralyzed the functioning of all the colleges and universities in the state. All works of admission, examination and teaching have been adversely affected by the strike and students have started migrating to other parts of the country to pursue their higher education.
The Federation leaders — Rajendra Mishra, Bimal Prasad Singh, Ganga Prasad Jha, Rohit Kumar and Ram Shankar Mehta — said that only the government is responsible for the derailment of academic calendars of the universities.