SC students’ enrolment dips 18% as Rs 1,000-cr grant stuck

CHANDIGARH:With no reimbursement of around Rs 1,000 crore by the Punjab Government under the new guidelines of the SC Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme, the enrolment of Scheduled Caste students over the past two years has registered a dip of 18 per cent in private colleges across the state.

Rajmeet Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 2

With no reimbursement of around Rs 1,000 crore by the Punjab Government under the new guidelines of the SC Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme, the enrolment of Scheduled Caste students over the past two years has registered a dip of 18 per cent in private colleges across the state.

Enrolment of SC students may see a further dip in the new academic session (2019-2020). Around three lakh SC students hailing from poor economic background, who intend to take admissions drawing benefit under the scheme, are being denied “provisional” admission by private colleges.

Only students who are able to pay the prescribed fee at the time of admission are being enrolled.

BEd Federation of Unaided Colleges president Jagjit Singh said, “The colleges are not getting the Post-Matric Scholarship funds. So, the federation has resolved that from 2019-20, the colleges will charge fee from all SC students because the state has to reimburse the fee into the students’ bank accounts.”

A number of Congress MLAs have already flagged the issue, forcing the government to convene a meeting of departments concerned. Technical Education Minister Charanjit Singh Channi said, “The concern of SC students is of utmost importance. I have asked the technical colleges to admit students on priority.”

Punjab Unaided College Association (PUCA) president Dr Anshu Kataria said, “We are going to meet Union Cabinet Minister for Social Welfare Thawar Chand Gehlot, requesting the Centre to again make it a 100 per cent Centre-sponsored scheme, as Punjab is already under a financial debt.”

Centre to state shift

Till 2016-2017, the scheme for SC students was fully sponsored by the Centre; students were given provisional admissions, private colleges used to raise demand with the state, which would approach the Centre for reimbursement
From April 2018, the grant became a financial liability of the state, thus raising state’s annual share under the scheme from Rs 60 crore to Rs 780 crore