Amid Centre-state conflict, SC students’ fate hangs by thread: Kainth

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, July 12

Paramjit Singh Kainth, president of the National Scheduled Castes Alliance (NSCA), a socio-politico organisation working in the interests of SC, BC and minority communities, bashed the state government over its profound inability in implementation of the post-matric scholarship in the state.

“The state government has been in a constant tussle with the Centre regarding the allocation of funds under the scheme, evident as recently as last week where the former clearly showcased its lack of concern regarding the future of lakhs of SC students by rejecting the proposal of the Centre to send the funds in 60:40 ratio. Instead of welcoming the move, the state government clearly wants to shrug off its responsibility in providing a better future to these students.”

The NSCA had met Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Som Parkash over the issue.

“It was after Som Parkash forwarded the delegation’s request to Thawar Chand Gehlot, Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, that the Centre sent its new proposal to send the funds in 60:40 ratio to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA),” Kainth claimed.

Kainth said: “The reaction of Capt Amarinder Singh on the next day of the Centre’s proposal was a testament to the fact that in cases relating to the SC community, this government does not care at all. Article 38, which directs the state to provide a welfare state to its citizens, is clearly not in mind and plans of this government. The Chief Minister has otherwise never spoken on issues of the community but when it came to providing funds for the scheme from the state treasury, he instantly backed off and started blaming the Union Government.”

Kainth said: “An amount of Rs 425.92 crore, due for Punjab, Gujarat and Goa for the period up to 2017-18, could not be released due to the non-receipt of enabling documents from these states. According to the recent report of the CAG (Report No.12 of 2018) on the post-matric scholarship presented in the Lok Sabha revealed that the state was home to widespread corruption by private institutes. The performance audit of the implementation of the scheme brought out poor planning. It neither had any database of eligible students nor had prepared any action plans for assessing the estimated number of beneficiaries and their timely coverage. In Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh, audit teams noticed discrepancies in data generated by state portals with a financial implication of Rs 455.98 crore.”

Kainth said. “In the report, it was found that in the state, 3,684 of the 57,986 post-matric students of 49 of the 60 selected institutes in six selected districts left the courses mid-session during 2012-17. However, the fee as well as maintenance allowance of Rs 14.31 crore in respect of these students had been claimed by these institutions. In violation of the scheme norms, 11 of the 18 selected government institutes collected the fee from 11,830 students and claimed the said amount from the state government. Of these students, fee was not reimbursed to at least 9,696 students.”

Kainth added that “This conflict between the Centre and the state is detrimental to the uplift and development of the SCs. The state government cannot escape from taking over the responsibility for its people and it must step up and provide a credible solution to the problems. The state should ensure accountability of officials and institutions for the release of undue amounts as well as for the non-release or delay in release of scheme benefits to eligible students.”