Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh :

The target achievement of pre-matric and post-matric scholarships awarded to students from minority communities is a meagre 45 per cent, mainly due to the cumbersome application procedures for obtaining income certificates, activists and educationists noted on Thursday.

Underscoring the income certificate (IC) issue, the Minority Scholarship Campaign (MSC), which aims for 95 per cent saturation of scholarships, held at Urdu Ghar in Moghalpura, said that parents spend hundreds of rupees for getting an IC required for applying an annual scholarship of only Rs 600 and Rs 800.

“An agent charges a minimum of Rs 150 apart from the Rs 120 for the affidavit along with notorising it. Schools take Rs 30 to Rs 40 for a bonafide certificate and the fee charged at Mee Seva centres is separate,” Sauhard Manch (SM) activist SQ Masood said.

Speakers fear that the government could slash the budget earmarked for scholarships if targets were not met. “The focus has to be Hyderabad as the coverage of scholarships in the city is low. We should not allow the budget to be returned like last time,” said activist Ali Asghar from GRAIN.To tackle such problems, the MSC initiative will have 15 volunteers who will communicate with schools in minority concentrated mandals of Bahadurpura, Golconda, Asifnagar, Charminar and Bandlaguda. They will also help students from minority communities living in other mandals to apply for scholarships.

“There are between 250 and 300 schools in these mandals. Volunteers will meet administration to obtain a list of those eligible for scholarships. They will also give them various application forms including those for IC and guide them in filling them up till their submission and collection from tehsildars. To create awareness, posters in mosques and community centres will be handed out,” said an activist.

Activists were left disappointed as none of the tehsildars who were invited turned up. However, AP State Minorities chairman Abid Rasool Khan said that his office would work in tandem with Rajiv Vidya Mission (RVM) for achieving scholarships targerts.

“There is one motivator for 100 houses who encourages parents to enroll their ward in schools. I will call for a meeting with RVM so as to see how these 700 motivators can be used for achieving 95 per cent achievement in these mandals,” he said.

Managing director of Siasat Daily Zaheeruddin Ali Khan, activist Md Azam Khan and State Bank of Hyderabad lead bank officer KV Bharat Kumar also spoke at the event.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Hyderabad / TNN / June 14th, 2013