State human resource development department minister PK Shahi speaks to visitors at his janata darbar in Patna on Wednesday. The vice-chancellors did not get to meet Shahi, who spoke on the Teachers’ Eligibility Test. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, Aug. 17: The state human resource development (HRD) department today organised a meeting of the vice-chancellors (VCs) of all the universities in the state.

Even the newly appointed VCs of six universities, on whose appointment the state government had its reservations, attended the meeting.

HRD secretary Sitaram Singh told The Telegraph the meeting was held in connection with the university budget as the one submitted by the universities had “several anomalies”.

The higher education director, Sitaram Singh, said: “The budgets submitted by various universities have several anomalies, like typing mistakes and budgets not made in accordance with the rules and regulations of the University Act.”

The HRD has directed the heads of the universities to clear the anomalies and submit a fresh budget as soon as possible.

The meeting also brought relief to the teaching and non-teaching employees of the universities as the HRD has decided to pay their salaries according to the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission from this month. Several universities in the state are still paying their employees according to the old rates because the HRD has not released the fund for the payment according to the Sixth Pay Commission.

The HRD officials also asked the university heads to implement the Right to Service Act as introduced in the state from August 15.

According to the act, marksheets and duplicate marksheets have to be provided within a stipulated time-frame. Rectification of marksheets, migration certificates were to be issued within 10 days.

The Right to Service Act was passed by the state legislature in February-March this year and has received the governor’s assent.

In another development, the state HRD minister, P.K. Shahi, said the teachers’ process of appointment according to the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) would start from February-March. The examination for TET will be held in the last week of October or the first week of November.

Around 22 lakh applicants have been received by state HRD department for the TET, one of the biggest examinations the state has witnessed in recent years.

Even though today’s meeting was chaired by Shivkumar and Sitaram Singh the newly appointed VCs did not meet HRD minister P.K. Shahi.