The health and social welfare Minister Surendra Singh Negi met the Union Social Justice Minister Thawar Chandra Gehlot in New Delhi on Wednesday and requested him that the Central assistance for scholarships of Schedule d Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) students of the State should soon be released. Negi told Gehlot that Union Government should release an amount of Rs15.14 crore for providing scholarship to SC students of class IX and X. He said that demand proposal and utilisation certificate is provided by the Uttarakhand Government for the same. Negi informed that the State Government is committed to educate SC, ST students to make them economically and socially capable but lack of Central assistance is creating problems. The downtrodden section of Uttarakhand society is affected by it.
The Uttarakhand Minister also raised a demand for releasing an amount of Rs149.17 crore which is pending for scholarship of SC student of class XI and above. He said that the Uttarakhand Government is not able to disburse scholarships due to lack of Central assistance. Negi told Gehlot that if the Central Government provides the pending budget than the State Government would be able to fulfill its aim of making the downtrodden section of society strong and self reliant. The Union Minister assured that action on all the pending issues would soon be taken.