Students face testing times while applying for scholarship

Nikhila Pant Dhawan

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Tribune News Service

Bathinda, September 12

Students willing to apply for scholarship under the Merit-cum-Means Scholarship 2015-2016 given by the Ministry of Minority Affairs (MOMA) for minority students are facing a tough time at Government Rajindra College. Students claimed that though they had submitted their applications and forms with the college authorities more than 10 days ago, the procedure is not over yet.

A student of BA-1 of the college, Ramandeep Kaur, stated that she had submitted her form almost a week back but the forms were yet to be signed by the principal and this was causing a delay in her online application.

Another student Balvir Kaur stated that she had submitted the form, application and the mandatory documents with the clerk assigned the duty, but her form was yet to be signed and given back to her. “Almost everyday, I try to collect the form but to no avail,” she said.

The students also complained that the clerk, who had been assigned the job of collecting the forms and documents from the students and get them all signed by the principal was not working properly, spoke rudely to the students and also didn’t guide them properly as to why their forms were not being accepted or processed.

Following complaints by students, the college authorities today swung into action and the principal of the college, Vijay Goyal, along with other teachers and students, took over the work of clearance of applications of the students.

Speaking about the difficulties that the students were facing in completing the formalities of the application, Prof Sukhdev Singh said, “The problem is that along with the application form, the students have to attach a number of documents. A majority of the forms which have been submitted don’t have all the documents attached with them and this is causing delay in their clearance.”

He elaborated that along with the scholarship form, the students have to attach a verification certificate from the institute where they are studying, a self-declaration, caste/minority certificate, income certificate, bank account copy, residence proof copy, a copy of Aadhaar card or any other identity card, last year’s education certificate to prove that they secured 50 per cent or more marks in the last academic session. Principal Vijay Goyal added that he had constituted a special team to expedite the work for clearance of application so that the students don’t face any delay in applying for the scholarship online. He also allayed the fears of the students and added that all the deserving applications will be cleared as soon as possible.