JALANDHAR: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal and other party leaders on Wednesday attacked the Congress government in Punjab, saying it was denying education to Dalit students by refusing to release Rs 444 crore received from the Centre for the scheduled castes (SC) post-matric scholarship scheme.Sukhbir even announced to launch a statewide agitation on the issue.Addressing a dharna outside the Jalandhar district administrative complex, Sukhbir said it was condemnable that the government had misused hundreds of crores sent by the Centre for the SC scholarship scheme. He said this gross discrimination had devoid one lakh Dalit students of getting admission in colleges this year.Claiming that the SAD-BJP government had extended the scholarship to more than 10 lakh students during its tenure, the SAD president said the present government was denying the same despite the fact that the Centre was ready to release more funds under the scheme, subject to submission of utilization certificates.He said even backward class (BC) students have also been denied the same scholarship as the government has failed to release Rs 22 crore grant received for this purpose.Besides former minister Bikram Singh Majithia, SC MLAs of the SAD including Pawan Teenu, Sukhwinder Sukhi, Baldev Singh Khaira and former Lok Sabha deputy speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal also addressed the dharna and raised similar issues. Quite a few speakers projected Sukhbir Badal as the future chief minister of Punjab.

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