PATNA, July 2 -- The Bihar government's ambitious plan to start 211 new colleges to ensure a college in each of the state's 534 blocks from July 1 hasn't materialised and the government will soon come up with a schedule for the project, a senior official in the department of higher education said. He added that the "postponement" of the initiative -- a part of the state's Saat Nischay-3 programme under the "Unnati Shiksha, Unnati Bhavishya" scheme-is due to multiple factors, including the unavailability of the required number of teachers, infrastructure not being ready on time, and others. Chief minister Samrat Choudhary reviewed the status on Tuesday evening with senior education department officials and directed them to expedite the process for the launch at a mega event sometime later. While the government managed to create makeshift arrangements for the new colleges, the centralised process for appointing qualified and competent contract-based assistant professors at a better pay scale could not even begin despite the department's various experiments. Chief Secretary Pratyaya Amrit also held a meeting with district magistrates via video-conferencing to get an update on the status of infrastructure required for the new colleges and the admission process. With time running out for teacher appointments in 211 new degree colleges, the department had widened the scope to offer opportunities to school teachers meeting the required eligibility criteria but later suddenly withdrew the notification, while universities had also started removing guest teachers who had been teaching in constituent colleges for years. Higher education secretary Rajiv Raushan said that the first phase of admission through Samarth Portal has also not been completed so far, which would be spread to three-four phases before spot admission. "The response of students for admission in new colleges is good and we hope the admission process will be completed this month. The statute for appointment (of teachers) has also been vetted by the state higher education council and the process should not take much time," he added. Additional Chief Secretary to the Governor, Dipak Kumar Singh, said that the selection process for fixed-term faculty could not be completed due to certain issues. "Hopefully, things will be taken up now after clearing the confusions," he added. Department officials said that the temporary infrastructure in Plus Two schools and other available places has been almost readied, principals have been appointed and the admission process has begun, but teacher recruitment will take more time. "A new schedule, hopefully within July, will be announced soon. The Chancellor's Secretariat is also likely to clear the statute for fixed-term appointment of assistant professors within a few days," said Higher Education Director NK Agarwal. A former vice chancellor, however, said that rushing things might create more problems than it would solve due to the lack of time to fill large-scale vacancies. Deputizing so many teachers from existing and already understaffed constituent colleges is not possible, as that also becomes a tool for vice chancellors to settle scores with those not in their good books, and finding competent UGC NET/CSIR qualified individuals on a temporary basis will not be easy. Last month, the Chancellor's Secretariat prepared a draft statute for engaging fixed-term faculty in six subjects in the 211 proposed degree colleges in blocks, which don't have such colleges, under the concerned state universities of Bihar and circulated it for opinion. Apart from general academic qualifications, the statute mandated that a candidate must have qualified the National Eligibility Test (NET) for Assistant Professors conducted by the UGC/CSIR twice a year or an equivalent examination conducted by the UGC in the concerned subject or have a PhD in accordance with the UGC (Minimum Standards and Procedures for Award of PhD Degree) Regulations....