Patna, July 17: Chief minister Nitish Kumar along with state human resource development (HRD) minister P.K. Shahi met the chancellor of universities, Devanand Konwar today.

Governor House sources said the meeting, which lasted for more than three-and-a-half hours, focussed on various issues related to regular appointments of vice-chancellors (VCs) in universities where the post of VCs are lying vacant for more than seven months and half-a-dozen bills related to higher education awaiting the governor’s nod.

The meeting of the constitutional head of state and the chief minister assumes importance, as recently as Sushil Kumar Modi, the deputy chief minister, and Shahi expressed hope that Governor Devanand Konwar would finally give his nod to the pending bills. However, Governor House refused to provide any information about the meeting.

Last week, Shahi wrote a letter to the governor requesting him to make regular appointments of vice-chancellors in larger interest of the state universities. This is the second time that the HRD minister has written a letter to the chancellor of universities over regular VC appointments.

At present, eight out of 10 universities in the state are running with ad hoc VCs. Earlier, Shahi had sought public opinion over the state of affairs in higher education in the state.

The issue of regular appointments of VCs was also raised on the first day of monsoon session of the Assembly with state energy and parliamentary affairs minister Bijendra Yadav raising the issue that owing to non-regular appointment of VCs in universities, the quality of education is being hampered.

Moreover, because of non-regular appointment of VCs, work in varsities has been delayed. Teachers and employees at Magadh University and Chappra University have not received salaries for months.

Magadh University and Veer Kuer Singh University are functioning without any regular VCs as their appointments have been quashed by Patna High Court.