SCHOLARSHIP BENEFIT ROW Aparna Banerji Jalandhar, November 20 About 500 SC/ST students of various colleges today submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner as well as the District Welfare Officer against what they said was undue fee being charged from them and the non-clearance of their forms. While about 200 students of the CT College of Education met the Deputy Commissioner in this regard, students of Lyallpur Khalsa College also met the District Welfare Officer. While students of the CT College of Education have alleged that they are being asked to pay Rs 1 lakh as fee for a year despite being covered under the post-matric scholarship scheme— being SC/ST students— they alleged having been kept in the dark in the matter during the time of their admissions. They also expressed their ability to cope with the instructions issued suddenly. A student of B.Ed first semester, Kamal, said, “The government was earlier paying our annual fee under the post-matric scholarship scheme. As per a notice issued on Thursday, we are now supposed to pay the Rs 1 lakh fee per annum of which an amount of Rs 16,834 shall later be refunded by the government. During the time of our admission, we were never told that the amount had to be paid. How will we now arrange for such a hefty amount. Citing the notice released on December 26, 2016, as per which instructions to pay the fee were issued, the students demanded that they be relieved of making the payment to the government. Unable to meet the Deputy Commissioner, the students met Additional District Magistrate Jasbir Singh who assured that the college won’t be allowed to force them to pay the fee. Meanwhile, students of Lyallpur Khalsa College met the District Welfare Officer with the complaint that their college had rejected the forms of as many as 300 SC/ST students asking them to submit a self-undertaking which they were previously unaware of. General secretary, Punjab Students Union, Gurjit Kaur said, “With our exams scheduled for a day after tomorrow, we won’t be able to appear unless our forms are cleared. Earlier, a deadline of December 10 had been set for the deposition of forms which was extended to December 17. This wasn’t a prerequisite earlier. We have all the documents regarding our SC/ST status. As many as 300 of us are being excluded from the benefits of the scheme unless we submit the forms. The DWO has asked us to submit the SC/ST details as well as the certificates to him on the basis of which our names shall be cleared for the exams.” DC Varinder Kumar Sharma said, “We are looking into the matter. If any college is denying the dues to the students as per the government policy on post-matric scholarship, then strict shall be taken against them.”

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