Visva-Bharati vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty on Sunday held a meeting with representatives of teaching and non-teaching employees, telling them that their Seventh Pay Commission arrears could not be paid because the university was grappling with a financial crisis.

Non-teaching employees protested the payment delay and announced an “indefinite pen-down” strike from Monday. They want the dues cleared by Puja. Research students also held demonstrations demanding scholarship arrears.

On August 11, the officiating registrar and the finance officer of Visva-Bharati were gheraoed for more than three hours by members of the

non-teaching employees’ association demanding the arrears.

The dues were caused by a gap between the announcement of the new pay structure in mid-2018 and its implementation with restrospective effect from 2016.

Sources said at the three-hour meeting on Sunday, the VC said the university was going through the financial crisis as the University Grants Commission (UGC) was not providing required funds to pay the arrears of employees and scholarships of research scholars.