Govt college waives fee for SC students

Sumeer Singh

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, July 18

Following a series of protests by members of a students’ union, the management of Government Rajindra College has decided to waive fee for students from SC category.

The management, however, clarified that only admission aspirants who are eligible for the post-matric scholarship must apply for it and after getting due approval from the college.

Once they get the scholarship money transferred into their account, they can pay the fee as stipulated under university guidelines.

Talking to Bathinda Tribune, Professor Satveer Singh, officiating principal, Government Rajindra College, said, “The eligible SC students (admission aspirants) need to apply for the post-matric scholarship and get approval from the college management for the same. Once they get the scholarship money, these students must deposit fee for their respective course. The final date of admission for such students would be deferred further. It has also been observed that a few students, after availing of the scholarship (money), do not take admission.”

Singh added, “After availing of the scholarship money, the SC students would be paying Rs 600. SC students would be paying Rs 100 for online registration and Rs 500 as security, which is refundable.”

Meanwhile, members of the Punjab Students Union continued their protest and demanded that PTA funds must also be waived for general category students.

Addressing a gathering of students, Punjab Students Union president Sangeeta Rani said, “It is a big win for the student unity that the college management has decided to waive fee of SC students. Now, our next target is to get the PTA funds waived for general category students.”

She exhorted the general category students not to pay the increased PTA funds.

“The authorities need to understand that Rs 2,400 is a big amount for students coming from financially weak background, whether he or she is from SC category or general. We need to remain firm on our stand and not pay the increased PTA funds even if the authorities threaten to cancel our admissions.”

Counselling continues on day three

The counselling for different courses continued on day three at the college where several students appeared to complete the admission process.

For BA (first year), students with 77 per cent and above were called for counselling for the general category, for BCA (1), students with 76 per cent and above attended the counselling.

For B.Com, students with 84 per cent and above for general category and for SC students with 80 per cent and above were called on Wednesday.

For non-medical, the cut-off was 81.4 per cent and for SC category it was 68 per cent. For medical, the cut-off was 69 per cent for general category and for SC students it was 55 per cent. For BA (honours economics), the cut-off was 72 per cent.

Apart from this, the admissions for B.Com (honours), BA (honours economics) and BSc (non-medical with computer science) are still open. Students can register and apply for these courses online. The admissions will be done on merit basis.

College helps needy student

Meanwhile, the college management pooled money to pay fee of a financially deprived admission aspirant. Lovepreet Kaur (17), daughter of a farm labourer from Kaile Bandar village, was sad after her father did not have Rs 11,898 to pay for her admission in BA (first year). Kaur has secured 81.33 per cent in the PSEB exams.

On Tuesday, the college management had asked her father Malkit Singh to bring whatever money he could arrange.

On Wednesday, he turned up with Rs 6,000. Later, the professors, officiating principal and faculty members contributed money to ensure that Lovepreet got admission to the college.