Bihar Education Department suspends its decision to freeze university bank accounts

The Bihar government has postponed its directive to freeze the bank accounts of state-run universities and has asked university authorities to attend a review session on March 9.

This directive has been issued amidst the ongoing dispute between the education department and the Raj Bhavan.

The state government had previously withheld the salaries of vice-chancellors citing their non-attendance in an education department meeting last month. It had also instructed the freezing of bank accounts for all state universities, except one.

Earlier this month, the Raj Bhavan had instructed banks to disregard the education department's order to freeze the accounts of state-run universities, except one.

Deepak Kumar Singh, Higher Education Department Deputy Director on Wednesday urged VCs of  all the state universities to attend the March 9 review meeting of the department.

The deputy director in his letter said the accounts of varsities will not be frozen till March 9. Ahead of the scheduled Saturday meeting, the Raj Bhavan sent a letter warning VCs not to leave governor's office without prior permission.

In a letter to all VCs, the governor's (chancellor of all state universities) Principal Secretary Robert L Chongthu on Wednesday told them "not to leave their universities' headquarters without taking permission from the competent authority (Governor's office)".

"Strict disciplinary action would be taken if instructions are violated," says the letter.

The state education department had already lodged police complaints against VCs of those universities, who did not attend the department's review meeting held in the last week of February.

Its earlier letter to all VCs, except the vice-chancellor of Kameshwar Singh Darbhanga Sanskrit University, had sought clarification for their absence from the meeting to discuss pending examinations and other issues.

The letter had warned that if satisfactory replies were not received, FIRs would be lodged against the university authorities, and salaries of VCs would remain withheld.

 Bihar Education Minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary has not made any comment on the issue yet.

(with PTI inputs)