Gaya: Salary of 63 teachers deputed in different PG departments and constituent colleges of Magadh University located in the five districts of Magadh division has been stopped.A notification to this effect has been issued by MU registrar Vinod Kumar Mangalam. Besides, three months salary of nearly 400 teachers of the university, except the 63 whose salary has been stopped, was credited to their individual accounts.Earlier, the state govt released Rs44 crore for three month salary payment to teachers and non-teaching staff of the university headquarters, two dozen PG department, 19 constituent colleges and one govt funded minority college tagged to the university.The govt sanctioned another Rs103 crore for pension payment to more than 4,500 superannuated teachers and non-teaching employees of the university, including a section of retired employees of Veer Kuer Singh University, Ara and Patliputra University, Patna. Both the VKU and PPU were carved out of MU in 1993 and 2018 respectively and employees who retired before the university’s division get pension from the MU fund.Confirming salary stoppage of the 63 teachers, the registrar said the salary stoppage has been made to facilitate verification of the experience claim made by these teachers. The 63 teachers, according to the registrar, during their appointment process availed the 10 points awards while claiming to have taught in colleges before being appointed in the regular service of the university.According to the registrar, the documents submitted by these teachers claiming teaching experience are being forwarded to the universities where they claim to have worked earlier. In several other universities, allegations of fake experience certificates have surfaced and as such proper verification of the experience certificate has become necessary. Salary of such teachers would be paid only if the universities concerned confirm that the experience certificate submitted by these teachers were genuine.Reacting to the decision to stop salary payment, MU Teachers Association oresident Sachin Mandilwar said the association was seized with the matter and a way out has to be found to protect the teachers against financial distress.Questioning the rationale behind the salary stoppage, Kusum Kumari, former director of the women studies department of the university, wondered why such verification was being done after the issuance of appointment letters to such teachers. Such verifications are made before the issuance of the appointment letter. “So long as they are performing their classroom duty and other assignments, they can not be deprived of their wages,” said Kumari.
