Around 4,000 employees, teachers and pensioners of Visva-Bharati are yet to get paid for June, with varsity authorities not giving any reason for the delay.

Sources said employees of the central university usually get salary credited to bank accounts on the last working day of a month. However, though three days have elapsed in July, employees are yet to receive the June salaries.

There are around 2,200 employees, including 1,150 permanent staff, and 1,850 pensioners under Visva-Bharati. The Centre pays it Rs 23 crore towards salaries and pension every month.

Sources said during an online meeting in mid-June, officials of the varsity’s accounts department told vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty that to do their job they needed permission to open their office. The varsity is closed amid Covid curbs imposed by the state government on educational institutions.

“As it was felt no one was competent to issue the permission, the VC asked officiating registrar Ashok Mahato to write to the Union ministry of education seeking a nod to open the office. A letter to this effect was sent but the ministry was yet to respond,” an insider said..

A varsity official claimed the problem “had been created intentionally” and the VC’s advice to Mahato was “ridiculous”.

“The VC should know disbursing salary is emergency work and the state government placed no curb on such work. It is over a year that the varsity is closed amid the pandemic and salary has been disbursed on time (except now),” he said.

The varsity’s PRO Anirban Sircar did not reply to this newspaper’s text messages.

PM Narendra Modi’s nominee in Visva-Bharati’s executive council, Dulal Ghosh, said he would raise the varsity’s “whimsical and inhuman attitude” with “the people in Delhi”.

Salaries were put on hold in February 2020 and the acting registrar had then issued a notice citing lack of funds. This time, there is no paucity of funds, a senior official said.

“Salaries of central university employees are now released directly through the public financial management system but it requires the accounts department to update relevant details on the portal for disbursement to take place. One possible reason could be that Visva-Bharati officials have not updated the details, which led to the delay,” he said.