STATE TIMES NEWS
NEW DELHI: A delegation of over 20 Kashmir students called on Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Dr Jitendra Singh here on Thursday and sought his intervention for some of their issues and grievances related to Prime Minister’s Special Scholarship Scheme (PMSSS). The students, most of them studying in different professional years in the Mewar University, complained that there were certain discrepancies from time to time which had led to faulty/untimely disbursal of the scholarship money. In addition, the things had got further complicated due to uncertain conditions cropping up in the Kashmir Valley from time to time like, for example, floods in 2014 and a spell of violent turmoil this year. The delegation of students also consisted of 4 or 5 students from Jammu region who offered certain suggestions about the existing examination and the marking pattern.
In a memorandum submitted to Dr Jitendra, it was pointed out that whereas under all the schemes available in India, the students have been getting scholarships without any difficulty and there is no instance for seeking approval under Section 12(b) of UGC Act for the purpose of granting scholarship. Their documents have been checked and verified by AICTE. However, on account of non-disbursal of the scholarship money, they complained of hardship because a sizeable number of them belonged to socially, economically backward sections including Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The students requested Dr Singh to take up their case with the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MoHRD) and AICTE and pursue it to process the pending applications of scholarship so that they may continue their studies in the university in which they are admitted and be able to meet the expenses of lodging, boarding, tuition fees, books etc. Dr Jitendra gave a patient hearing to the students and said, he would forward their representation to Union Minister for Human Resource Development and also discuss with him as to what possibly can be done to help them. Prominent among those who presented the students’ viewpoint were Malikzada Ovais, Junaid Javaid Mir, Bilab Ahmad Dar, Syed Aneesul-Islam Bauhari, Tariq Aziz, Muzaffar Ahmed, Ankush Kumar, Bashir Ahmed and Rashid Gull.