PATNA: Even as the rest of Bihar will play with colours on Holi , it will be a colourless event for thousands of university teachers and non-teaching staff of the state. As a mark of protest against the indifference of the government towards higher education, they have decided not to celebrate the festival this year.Most university employees — working as well as retired — have been facing a harrowing time due to non-payment of salaries since October last year. “They witnessed a dark Diwali and will have a colourless Holi, if the present trend continues,” said Federation of University Teachers’ Associations of Bihar (FUTAB) working president Kanhaiya Bahadur Sinha and general secretary Sanjay Kumar Sinha.Worst is the condition of retired teachers and employees, most of whom are facing a starvation-like situation. Many do not have sufficient money to buy medicines and consult doctors, if they fall ill. Others claimed that even though the state cabinet has, of late, passed salary grants in two instalments, the education department is yet to release them.“Even if the salary grants are released now, teachers and non-teaching staff will not be able to get them before Holi. It is an irony that the Budget session of the financial year (2018-19) is slated for February 28, but universities have not yet got the financial allocations for the last fiscal (2017-18),” Kahaiya said.Taking strong exceptions to the inordinate delay in release of the sanctioned grants, the FUTAB has urged chief minister Nitish Kumar to intervene in the matter and expedite payment of salaries to the university staff at the earliest.

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