CHANDIGARH: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Punjab, has accused the Modi-led union government and the Congress government in the state of ruining besides, hundreds of government/ non-government, professional colleges and universities in Punjab, careers of lakhs of ‘Dalit’ students, teaching and non-teaching staff across the state.
In a joint statement issued from party headquarters on Saturday, Leader of Opposition (LoP) Harpal Singh Cheema, SC wing and MLA Manjit Singh Bilaspur, co-president and MLA Kulwant Singh Pandori, said a whopping amount of Rs 1700 crore on account of post-matric scholarship paid to hundreds of colleges and universities in the state under the scheme was outstanding against the government, thus depriving millions of ‘Dalit’ students pursuing their higher studies, besides leaving hundreds of educational institutions and their teaching and non-teaching staff be due to the non-payment of the scholarship amount.
Harpal Singh Cheema informed that the state government had not yet issued the Usage (Utilization) Certificate (UC) of the scholarship amount released by the Union Government in the year 2017-18, leading to an outstanding amount of more than Rs. 1000 crore for the years 2018-19 and 2019-20 which, Cheema said, which had not been paid by the governments yet, which had deprived more than million of ‘Dalit’ students of pursuing their higher and professional educations from various degree colleges and universities in the state during the year 2018-19.
There is no denying the fact that due to the indifferent attitude of the state and central governments, nearly 50 private professional colleges in various parts of Punjab, including Dhudhike, Goniana, Bagha Purana had faced closure and hundreds of others, including Punjabi University, Patiala, had been facing acute financial crisis, costing jobs of thousands of their teaching and non-teaching employees while Sword of Democles had been hanging over the heads of others.
Manjit Singh Bilaspur and Kulwant Singh Pandori said that the people of Punjab, especially from Fazilka, Dakha, Phagwara and Mukerian, and the ‘Dalit’ students, should quiz the Congress-led government in the state and the BJP-led union government for their colossal failure to tackle the issue of pending scholarship dues thus depriving the ‘dalit’ students pursuing their higher studies, saying the by poll time was the right time to bring them on board.