Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Punjab unit on Sunday accused the Narendra Modi-led Union Government and the Capt Amarinder Singh led Punjab Government in the state of ruining hundreds of government or non-government, professional colleges and universities in Punjab, besides the careers of lakhs of ‘Dalit’ students, teaching and non-teaching staff across the state.
A whopping amount of Rs 1,700 crore on account of post-matric scholarship paid to hundreds of colleges and universities in the state under the scheme was outstanding against the government, thus depriving millions of ‘Dalit’ students pursuing their higher studies, besides hundreds of educational institutions and their teaching and non-teaching staff of their due because of non-payment of scholarship amount, said AAP MLAs including Leader of Opposition in Vidhan Sabha Harpal Singh Cheema, party’s Punjab SC wing head Manjit Singh Bilaspur, co-president Kulwant Singh Pandori.
Cheema said that the State Government has not yet issued the utilization certificate of the scholarship amount released by the Union Government in 2017-18, leading to an outstanding amount of more than Rs 1000 crore for the years 2018-19 and 2019-20 which had not been paid by the governments yet depriving more than million of ‘Dalit’ students of pursuing their higher and professional educations from various degree colleges and universities in the state during 2018-19.
“There is no denying the fact that due to indifferent attitude of the State and the Central Governments, nearly 50 private professional colleges in various parts of Punjab, including Dhudhike, Goniana, Bagha Purana had faced closure and hundreds of others, including Punjabi University, Patiala, had been facing acute financial crisis, costing jobs of thousands of their teaching and non-teaching employees while Sword of Democles had been hanging over the heads of others,” he said.
Bilaspur and Pandori said that the people of Punjab, especially from Fazilka, Dakha, Phagwara and Mukerian, and the ‘Dalit’ students, should quiz the Congress-led government in the state and the BJP-led Union Government for their colossal failure to tackle the issue of pending scholarship dues thus depriving the ‘Dalit’ students pursuing their higher studies, saying the by poll time was the right time to bring them on board.