JALANDHAR:
Centre has withheld scholarship money for minority students of Punjab belonging to Muslim, Sikh and Christian religions under its scheme after state government failed to submit utilization certificate for Rs 40.59 crore. The amount was given by ministry of minority affairs during last financial year.
The facts came out in a meeting of Planning Commission of India. Senior Supreme Court advocate H S Phoolka, who attended the meeting being a member of the Steering Committee on Empowerment of Minorities, has now written to Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal asking him to take immediate steps on the issue as over 2.73 lakh students are being deprived of the scholarship due to negligence of official machinery in Punjab.
In his letter, Phoolka said that during last financial year, Rs 40.59 crore were transferred by Centre to Punjab government for disbursement among 3.01 lakh students for pre and post-matric scholarships.
“Punjab government has not submitted the ‘utilization certificate’ to Centre that says scholarship money has been distributed. As a result of this, Centre has not transferred the money for 2011-12 even as it had sanctioned that for 2.73 lakh students for pre-matric scholarships,” he added.
“Due to this failure of Punjab government, these poor students have been deprived of the benefit of scholarship pertaining to last financial year and they may again not get it because the central government would not send the money till funds for last year’s disbursal are used and utilization certificate submitted,” he wrote to the CM.
He has said a large number of Sikh students from Punjab, particularly from rural areas and poor families, had applied for scholarships under this scheme. Some NGOs working in this field had complained to the union government that the scholarship money was not given to them. “It is most imperative that the financial help should reach them on time, otherwise the child may lose an academic year,” he pointed out.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> India / by I P Singh / TNN / December 11th, 2011