Chandigarh, September 4: Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee President Sunil Jakhar has said that the dual role of SAD and BJP stands exposed on the issue of scholarships to students.
He said that the Modi government had scrapped the scheme in 2017 and deprivied the SC students of Rs.800 crore worth of assistance that was being disbursed every year to them. The SAD and BJP were playing politics on the issue now to cover up the failure of the NDA government.
Assuring that the Punjab Government would soon complete the ongoing inquiry into the controversy over distribution of scholarships in a timely manner, he said that by politicizing the issue, the non-congress parties were trying to cover up the right to education of the weaker sections of the society by shutting down the scheme.
The state congress chief said that action would be taken against anyone found guilty during the inquiry in this case but none can deny that the scholarship dispute was inherited from the previous government. The Post Matric Scholarship Scheme was started in 2006-07 by the then Congress Prime Minister Manmohan Singh led government to provide higher education opportunities to the children of our weaker sections. But in 2017, the Modi government arbitrarily scrapped the scheme. Those who were taking to the streets today should raise their voice with the Central Government for resumption of the scheme, he said
Referring to 2016, Jakhar said that even during the tenure of SAD-BJP government, the state government had admitted in the Vidhan Sabha that there was a big mess in the scheme and the then Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal had assured a vigilance inquiry. During the tenure of the present government, only the scholarships of the previous government for the year 2016-17 were distributed and no new grant was received from the Government of India.
“In fact Akali Dal and BJP were politicizing the issue to cover up the anti-poor decision taken by the Modi government whereas the stand of the Punjab government was very clear that there would be a timely inquiry and whoever was found guilty. The law will deal with that, he said.
Jakhar recalled that he had staged dharna three times outside Parliament against scrapping the scheme by the Modi government so that the right to education was not taken away from the poor children but there was no change in the anti-poor mind-set of the government. Prime Minister’s Skill Development Scheme launched by the central govt by scrapping the old scheme didn’t bear fruit.
Jakhar said that the Congress party would continue to put pressure on the Central Government to re-introduce the Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme and if the latter don’t mend Punjab Government would look for other alternatives. Although the financial condition of Punjab was not good at present but still the Congress government would make all out efforts for the education of its students.
