Release post-matric scholarship amount of ~1,700 cr, Centre urged

Jalandhar, December 2

The Punjab Unaided Colleges Association (PUCA) urged the Central Government to release the pending 1,700 crore funds of the Post-Matric Scholarship (PMS) for SC/ST students to the state at the earliest.

Dr Anshu Kataria, president, PUCA, said the state government had already released a major part of Rs 323 crore which was further disbursed by the Centre to the state and some part of the pending payment was also being released this month to colleges. However, an amount of Rs 1,700 crore is pending for SC/ST students of the state for 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19 towards the Central Government.

Finance Secretary, PUCA, CA Manmohan Garg, said the unaided colleges of the state were under a heavy financial burden due to the non-payment of funds by the government.

He said due to the non-payment, salaries of the past four-five months of teaching and non-teaching staff in some unaided colleges had also not been paid.

Kataria urged the state government to immediately notify the revised fees structure to self-financed colleges for courses such as BEd, ETT, LLB, ITI, BA and BCom.

He added that the colleges should get the scholarship amount of the duration for which a student had studied in any college. — TNS