Students, parents stand in queue for over 4 hrs to get income certificate

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, October 15

Hundreds of students and their parents from across the district, who have applied for the SC Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme this year were a harassed lot as they had to wait in long queues today at the Suwidha Centre in the DC Complex to get their income certificates made. It was the last day for the students to apply for the scheme and they were required to upload a scanned copy of the certificate on the Aashirwad portal by this evening.

The parents of the applicants said they had already got affidavits for income made through the Executive Magistrates concerned as was the practice till last year.

They said now, they were being told that it was mandatory for them to submit income certificates furnished through the Suwidha Centre for which they had been standing in queues today.

While there were hundreds of applicants, only two counters were opened for them today with the waiting time being as long as four hours for many. Pallavi, a BSc student of Government Sports College and a resident of Basti Bawa Khel, said she had come to the centre at 9:30 am to get the form.

“I filled it here and was asked to get it attested from my area councillor. Hence, I had to go back to my place, which is 12 km from here, to get his signatures. Upon returning, I had to again approach my area patwari and kanugo in the Tehsil Complex to get their signatures and stamp too. I stood in the queue at 11 am and now, I am again standing here since the past two hours to get my turn to submit my file,” she said.

Like Pallavi, many other students had taken off from their colleges to get their certificates made. Gautam of Sofi Pind and Kulwinder of Bolina village, who are MTech students of IK Gujral Punjab Technical University, said they had come to the centre for the certificate but seeing the rush they chose to move to a Sewa Kendra at PIMS.

“But there too, we had to wait for long to get the work done”, they said.

Harbhajan Sampla of the Ambedkarite Legal Forum said it was a day of sheer harassment of SC students.

“When they had already procured an affidavit of the Magistrate, there was no point seeking a certificate of the Suwidha Centre too,” he said.

BSP leader Sukhwinder Kotli too alleged: “There could be many SC students who would not have been able to get their certificates within the time frame. Ideally, the government should extend the time for uploading the document on the Aashirwad portal or else many eligible students would be left out and may have to drop their studies if they are deprived of the benefit.”