PATNA, June 10 -- Thousands of college teachers and former employees have claimed their salaries and pensions of remain pending for the past four months even as the state government plans to start 211 new degree colleges with makeshift arrangements from next month. Several former employees in their 70s and 80s, ailing and sustaining on pension, are awaiting payments since March. "It is painful that despite several rulings of the Supreme Court that pension and retiral benefits are not discretionary bounties, but fundamental and constitutional rights, the government seems unconcerned and busy making big announcements only," said a retired nonagenarian professor of Magadh University. Higher education director NK Agrawal said the files had been sent to the finance department for the third time after completing the required formalities. "They had been insisting on utilisation of past grants and we have told them that it was not a new issue and a lot of utilisation had been submitted," he added. However, Federation of University Teachers Associations of Bihar (FUTAB) working president KB Sinha said that the utilisation issue was just a "lame excuse" in a state where Utilisation Certificates (UCs) worth Rs.90,000 crore were pending and there was no impact on the health of government officials. "It is just a pointer to financial crisis government is trying to paper over by shifting the blame on universities, which account for just a fraction of pending UCs. The Governor should take cognisance of it," he added. The bulk of pending certificates, as per the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report, are related to Panchayati Raj Department, Education Department, Urban Development, Rural Development, Agriculture Department and others. The Patna High Court, while hearing a contempt petition, had also cited the Division Bench order of 2018 with regard to modality of payment of pension to the retired employees of the universities and observed that the retired employees must get pension every month. In 2023, the then Additional Chief Secretary (education) Dipak Kumar Singh, who is now the Additional Chief Secretary to the Governor, had told the HC that the department would work out a mechanism in consultation with the VCs and related officials of universities to ensure timely pension payment in universities. Three years later, while Singh travelled to three-four different departments during the period and the education department witnessed as many heads, the problem remains unresolved. "The file related to release of grants to state universities shuttling between the education and finance departments is not a new thing. What pains us is to see why the government and the Lok Bhawan have not been unable to zero in on the basic issue, while big announcements with additional financial implications are being made every day," said Sinha and FUTAB general secretary Sanjay Kumar Singh. They said that even if the issue with the finance department is still resolved, salary disbursement will not be possible before the end of June or July. "At present the universities and colleges are functioning at barely 40-45% of the sanctioned strength and they are unable to ensure timely payment. Yet, they want to open new colleges first without resolving the old issues and getting the basics right," said the FUTAB leaders. On the other hand, the Chancellor's secretariat has barred universities from going ahead with non-regular appointment for 211 new degree colleges till the finalisation of the new procedure by the department, though funds have been sanctioned for makeshift arrangements....