A day after Congress MPs staged protest outside the Parliament House on the issue of post mmatric scholarship, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Friday asked them not to shed crocodile tears and instead ask their government in Punjab to release the entire grant received from the Centre for dalit students.
At the same time, the party also asked the Congress-led Punjab Government to submit the utilization certificates as well as audit report to avail more funds under the scheme.
SAD president Sukhbir Badal said that it was shocking that Congress MPs were indulging in “cheap placard politics” outside the Parliament on this sensitive issue when it was their government which had denied this benefit to the dalit students for one and a half years.
“Recently, after sustained protests by SAD, some money was released to the students, but the government is yet to clear more than Rs 100 crore dues besides releasing Rs 527 crore on its behalf for 2017-18 academic session,” he said.
He added that the amount of Rs 527 crore is due because the UPA Government under Dr Manmohan Singh formed a policy in 2007 whereby the burden of the scholarship scheme was to be transferred to the State Government from April 2017.
Sukhbir said that it would be better if Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar shifted the venue of his “protest” to the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and Finance Minister Manpreet Badal’s residences in Chandigarh.
“The fault lies in your government but you are indulging in cheap politics to befool the people,” he said.
Claiming that massive drop was witnessed in enrolment of dalit students in post-matric scholarship scheme during Congress’ tenure, Sukhbir said that from more than three lakh students availing this scheme during SAD-BJP tenure, the enrolment has come down to two lakh students now.
“Even these students are being harassed and forced to submit scholarship amounts to private colleges on their own because the government has failed to disburse the same timely,” he added.
Sukhbir asked the Congress MPs to protest against the “real culprits”. “Why Jakhar is not demanding an inquiry to punish those who diverted central funds received from the Centre for SC students. MPs should ask the Social Welfare Minister why he had failed to submit utilization certificates for funds received from the Centre and why the audit report of entire scheme had not been submitted to the ,” he said.
“Finance Minister promised that audit report would be submitted by August 2017. Why Jakhar is not demanding action against Manpreet for failing to perform his duty which had spoiled the future of one lakh dalit students,” he added.