The Raj Bhavan here reversed an order of the Bihar Education Department to freeze bank accounts of two officials at Muzaffarpur’s Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Bihar University, an indication of a showdown between the State Government and Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar.
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The Education Department had on Thursday ordered stopping of the payment of salary of the university Vice-Chancellor and Pro-VC for their alleged failure in inspecting the institutions that fall under their jurisdiction and also for not attending a review meeting held by it.
On Friday, Robert L. Chongthu, the Principal Secretary to the Governor, asked the bank concerned to defreeze the officials’ accounts with immediate effect.
In a letter to the bank, Mr. Chongthu said that the decision of the Education Department is beyond its jurisdiction as the Governor is Chancellor of the university. He also asked the bank to avoid such an action in future.
Reacting to the issue, former Deputy Chief Minister and Rajya Sabha member Sushil Kumar Modi said that due to the arbitrary decisions of the department, a chaos and uncertainty is prevailing from primary schools to university-level. Mr. Modi said the department should not take steps that are beyond its jurisdiction.