PATNA, July 6 -- The Chancellor's secretariat has asked all varsities to clear salaries to university teachers and employees, and pension and retirement benefits to retired ones by July 20 and submit status reports in the prescribed format, officials said on Sunday. Additional chief secretary (ACS) to the Governor, Dipak Kumar Singh, sent a letter to VCs in this regard. Singh directed VCs to clear the backlog payments in 'mission mode'. "Despite late approval of current and outstanding salaries of teachers and non-teaching employees of the universities and allocation of funds for payment of retirement benefits, complaints of delay continue to be received from various sources at the office of the Chancellor," read the letter sent on Friday. Singh sought status report within four days post deadline. "Please ensure that all such payments of all currently working teachers and employees and those who have retired till June 30, 2026 are made by July 20, 2026 and the status report is sent to the Chancellor's office in the prescribed formats separately for working and retired employees by July 24, 2026," he said. Chancellor's secretariat made it clear that some cases may still remain pending due to knowledge of the university administration, and for them camps be organised at headquarters of each varsity on July 27-28, 2026, after dissemination of information by universities through local newspapers and from the Chancellor's office through newspapers and social media, he said. "The registrar, financial advisor and finance officer of the university will be present at the camp with required staff to assist them. All payment-related complaints from working and retired teachers and employees present at the camp and those received via e-mail or post from those who won't be physically present shall be noted in a proper register," the letter further read. Singh underlined that all complaints need to be addressed in a campaign mode latest by August 14 and the status report must reach the Chancellor's office by August 21, 2026 in the formats prescribed by the Lok Bhawan. He has also emphasised that if, in any case, payment is not possible, the reasons for it should be recorded in detail in the column of the statement. The ACS also urged the Secretary, Department of Higher Education, to depute a representative separately for each university to participate in the camp, who will be present with all allocations sent to the concerned universities under salary, retirement benefits and arrear heads. The secretary was also requested that cases involving pendency at the level of salary verification cell, functional for a decade, be cleared after proper verification in campaign mode by July 20. "The cell's performance needs to be reviewed and monitored daily," he added. The move has been welcomed by the Federation of University Teachers' Association, which had been protesting against the practice of delayed payment. Deepak Prasad, a retired lab demonstrator in College of Commerce, Science and Art, said that despite superannuating in 2016, he was yet to get his full salary difference amount for April 1997-2016 amounting to Rs.12.76-lakh, though he got nearly half the amount, despite consistently writing to all concerned authorities and release of fund under the head in December 2025 itself. "There are claims from others also and they need to be verified by the university to dispose of such cases on a priority basis, as unnecessary pendency leads to growing litigations. Retired persons cannot run around and they suffer. The Lok Bhawan has for the first time set a timeline and that needs to be appreciated," said FUTAB working president KB Sinha....