Holi over, Eid nears, but pension blues for Bihar varsity staff continue

Thousands of retired university employees in Bihar await pensions for over two months, despite government claims of no financial issues, raising concerns.

Holi is over and Eid is approaching, but not the wait for thousands of retired teachers and employees of the state universities, who have not got pension for over two months.

Holi over, Eid nears, but pension blues for Bihar varsity staff continue

On Wednesday, the Federation of University Teachers’ Association of Bihar (FUTAB) wrote to Bihar chief secretary Pratyaya Amrit about the plight of retired teachers awaiting pension.

“Pensioners are mostly low paid employees. The fourth grade employees are the worst hit. The government says there is no financial constraint, but when it comes to universities even the salary and pension gets delayed,” the FUTAB leaders said.

The leaders said there were many pensioners, who suffered from cancer, heart disease or were on dialysis, and needed timely pension to survive. “In TM Bhagalpur University the delay is since December. Holi was discoloured and now wait is for Eid,” they added.

Responding to Opposition’s charge, the government had last month stated in the House that salary and pension payment to employees would be ensured before Holi.

“We have written to the CS that there has been no payment of pension for the month of January and February 2026 to university teachers and employees. We fail to understand why university teachers and employees, especially the pensioners, receive such step motherly treatment,” said FUTAB working president Kanhaiya Bahadur Sinha and general secretary Sanjay Kumar Singh, MLC.

Last year also, around the same period, thousands of teachers and employees of the universities and retired ones were left without payment for 3-4 months, and then it was blamed on the snag in Comprehensive Financial Management System (CFMS 2.O).

It had happened in 2022, 2023 and 2024 too, when thousands remained without salary and pension during the festive season for months.

This is despite the fact that in 2023, the then ACS (education) Dipak Kumar Singh had told the Patna HC that the department would work out a mechanism in consultation with the V-Cs and related officials of universities to ensure timely pension payment.

The HC had earlier, while hearing a contempt petition, 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 they must get pension every month.

The FUTAB leaders said that they had written to the CS in the hope that he would understand the plight of retired persons, as he himself belonged to a teacher’s family