Targeted by the Opposition parties over alleged misappropriation of funds under the post-matric scholarship scheme meant for the students belonging to the Scheduled Caste (SC), the Punjab Government on Tuesday made it clear that it would proceed against the institutions or students “wrongly claiming” scholarships under the Scheme.

That is not all! The departments, responsible for execution of the scheme, have also been asked to initiate a “thorough probe” into the matter and send its report to the Welfare Department at the earliest.

The instructions were issued by the state Welfare Minister Gulzar Singh Ranike after noticing duplicity in Post Matric Scholarship Scheme.

The Welfare Department had probed the data received online concerning 2,86,395 students pertaining to the year 2014-15 coming under the purview of the Post Matric Scholarship SC Scheme, said Ranike.

“During the course of primary checking, it was found that 3,433 students had taken admissions in two institutions while the number of students enrolling in three institutions was 82,” he said.

Ranike added that 966 students availed the benefits of Post-Matric Minority Scheme along with the Post-Matric SC Scheme.

The Minister also elaborated that the Welfare Department had sent an intimation to the executing departments — Technical Education and Industrial Training, Higher Education and languages, School Education and Medical Education and Research — to send the data in this regard and investigate the matter.

The main opposition party, Congress, had attacked the ruling SAD-BJP alliance after the reports of alleged misappropriation of Rs 20 crore in the Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme came to light. The party has also targeted the Minister in-charge into alleged delay in disbursal of scholarships for SC students in the state.

The party, besides demanding a CBI inquiry, has also been seeking Ranike’s resignation.