Bihar Salary Pension Dues Samrat Choudhary Financial Condition

Amid reports that the Bihar government has been withholding the salaries and pensions of thousands of university professors and staffers due to “poor financial condition,” Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary has said that the government has issued a blanket order to clear all outstanding dues.

“Salary and pension should be treated as part of one’s fundamental rights,” Choudhary said.

The CM was responding to allegations by the opposition RJD and Congress that the state had “emptied its coffers through blatant welfarism before the Assembly polls.” Choudhary added that Bihar would continue to flourish under the combined governance model of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former CM Nitish Kumar.

Speaking to the media on Friday at a function to mark Narendra Modi becoming the longest-serving elected Prime Minister, Choudhary said. “Bihar follows the Modi-Nitish model. We are committed to realising investments worth Rs 5 lakh crore by this November. The proposed 11 new townships will bring us an investment galore.”

When asked about the pending bills, the CM explained: “We have just received pending bills worth over Rs 1,500 crore. Pensions and salaries were held up due to the absence of utility certificates. However, we have cleared the bills with a mandate not to hold back pensions and salaries under any conditions.”

Thousands of teachers, non-teaching employees, and university pensioners across 13 state universities had faced severe delays in receiving their disbursements for March, April, and May. Besides, over 1 crore social security pension beneficiaries, including older people, widows, and persons with disabilities, had experienced a two-month delay in receiving their regular welfare stipends.

The state finance department has now released Rs 998.84 crore to cover the university salary and pension backlog from March to May. Mass disbursements have been initiated to clear the backlog for welfare pension recipients.

Choudhary also clarified that the state’s financial health remains sound. “Out of an annual budget of over Rs 3.5 lakh crore, our internal revenue is only about Rs 60,000 crore. Thanks to GST, we receive a substantial share of taxes from the Centre. As for loans, we have borrowed about Rs 72,000 crore this year. Every state takes loans for its welfare schemes; there is nothing unusual about it,” he said.

When asked whether the fund shortage was triggered by the state government spending over Rs 18,100 crore on the Mukhyamantri Mahila Rozgar Yojana (MMRY), under which a Rs 10,000 grant was given to each of the 1.81 crore Jeevika workers before and after the 2025 Assembly polls, Choudhary dismissed the connection.

“MMRY is just one of our welfare schemes. We are also providing 125 MW of free power to 1.8 crore consumers. There is no need to link this to a strained exchequer, as welfare schemes are an integral part of a welfare state.”

However, Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav countered, stating that the state’s liabilities sit at Rs 3.7 lakh crore and could cross Rs 4 lakh crore by the end of the current financial year. Yadav alleged, “The government’s temporary use of contingency and disaster funds to pay regular pensions highlights a collapsing economic framework where regular salaries are now dependent on borrowed money.

Santosh Singh is a Senior Assistant Editor with The Indian Express since June 2008. Expertise He covers Bihar with main focus on politics, society and governance. Investigative and explanatory stories are also his forte. Singh has 25 years of experience in print journalism covering Bihar, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. ... Read More