Many of the Punjab colleges are denying admission to the students belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC) category due to non-release of funds under the Post-Matric Scholarship for SC students.
No less than three lakh SC students of Punjab are facing problem, claimed the joint action committee (JAC) comprising 13 different Associations representing over 1,000 unaided colleges of Punjab.
Considering the situation, the JAC on Sunday urged both the Centre and the State Government to immediately release over Rs 1200 crore of Post Matric Scholarship for the year 2014-15, 2015-16, and 2016-17.
“The matter is becoming critical day by day. The situation became worse when an SGPC-run Guru Nanak College at Moga denied admissions to the SC students without submitting fees,” said Punjab Unaided Technical Institutions Association (PUTIA) president JS Dhaliwal.
A meeting of 13 different associations including PUTIA, BEd Association, PUCA, Polytechnic Association, Nursing Colleges Association, ETT Federation, BEd Association (Panjab University), BEd Association (GNDU), ITI Association, Punjab Unaided Degree Colleges Association (PUDCA), Academic Advisory Forum (AAF), among others, was held recently for the next action plan.
“Since last three years, small or big private unaided colleges of Punjab are facing post matric scholarship enquiries being hold by the government which is another tactic to delay the funds,” said Dhaliwal.
PUCA finance secretary Manmohan Garg said that due to non-release of Rs 1200 crore, more than 100 good colleges’ accounts have been declared as Non-Performing Assets (NPA) and banks have started the process for proceedings for taking possession and auction.
Polytechnic Association president Rajinder Dhanoa said that in Punjab earlier, only farmers commit suicide due to no relief in loan in agriculture sector by the government. “But now, the edupreneurs and educationists have also started taking this extreme step. Recently, an ITI owner of Bathinda, Subhash Bhateja, ended his life under money pressure waiting for the release of scholarship funds to take off his loan,” he added.