Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday demanded immediate resolution of the matter regarding releasing of Post-Matric Scholarship grants to the private colleges in Punjab so that the Sheduled Caste (SC) students may get admissions in private colleges without wasting their academic year.
AAP MlAs, led by the leader of Opposition in Vidhan Sabha Sukhpal Khaira, on Tuesday submitted a memorandum to the state Chief Secretary Karan Avtar Singh regarding denial of admission to SC students in the private colleges in the state due to non-release of Post Matric Scholarship Grant.
Khaira, in his memorandum, pointed that as per the information received through Right to Information (RTI) Act, a grant of Rs 115.73 crore was received by the Punjab Government from the Central Government for the post matric scholarship to SC students.
“The state government was to contribute Rs 4.03 crore in the scheme. As many 2,90,816 SC students applied for the scholarship out of which scholarship was granted to 2,165 students only, and the remaining 2,88,651 students are still awaiting the scholarship,” he said.
Khaira said that the State Government had ordered an audit of the Post Matric Scholarship given to private colleges because it was alleged that the grant was misused by the colleges. “The audit could not be completed so far and the grant of Rs 115.73 crore received from the Centre was released by the State Government to the state’s government colleges,” he said.
He said that to protest against Government’s “wrong decision”, the Management Committees of state’s private colleges have decided to admit SC students “only after receiving full fees from them”.
Khaira further pointed that the State Government has not issued utilization certificate in respect of Post Matric Scholarship grants after year 2013-14, and now the Central Government intends to pay only grant of Rs 60.8 crore under the new rules whereas the amount required for the scholarship to be given to the SC students during 2017-18 come to Rs 781 crores.
“More than one year has elapsed since the audit into the alleged misutilization of post matric scholarship was ordered, but no person or organization has been held guilty or responsible so far. Many educational institutions allege that they are unable to justify with education to the students because they are put on audit duty for the last one year as a result of which standard of education is going down day-by-day,” said Khaira.