हिंदी
9.50 lakh eligible students didn’t get SC scholarships during Congress rule: Cheema
Over 2.46 lakh students applied for SC scholarship this time, portal to remain open till March 31: Finance Minister
Chandigarh, February 17 2023
Accusing the previous government of playing with future of Schedule Cast students, Punjab Finance, Planning, Excise and Taxation Minister Advocate Harpal Singh Cheema on Friday said that Punjab government led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann unearthed a multi-crore post-matric SC scholarship scam took place during previous government and sacked six government officers.
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Addressing a press conference here at Punjab Bhawan, Cheema said that the Centre government had released Rs 303.92 crore released to the Congress Government on February 2019 under the Post Matric Scholarship for SCs Scheme. However, the discrepancies amounting to Rs 55 were detected after a probe conducted by AAP government on the directions of CM Mann.
Terming the development extremely unfortunate, Cheema said that Congress and SAD-BJP always adopted step-motherly treatment against SC students and ignored their deserving rights. Due to this, many were forced to drop their higher education.
He said that Congress leaders held protests in Vidhan Sabha and were vocal on probing the wrongdoings in the disbursal of the scholarship during Akali government but when it formed the government, Congress didn’t take any action against anyone, which clearly indicates that Akali and Congress were hand in glove.
He said that the during Congress government from 2017 to 2020, this scholarship was stopped and over 9.50 lakh eligible students didn’t get the benefit, which led to decline in number of students applying for scheme in 2021.
He said that number of students applying for the scheme drastically reduced to 1.95 lakh in 2021-22 compared to past years. But this time, SC students expressed their faith in AAP government and around 2.50 lakh students have already applied for the scheme so far and the portal is open for students till March 31 and this figure is expected to cross 3 lakh mark.
Reiterating his government’s dogged determination towards corruption, Advocate Cheema said that Punjab government led by CM Mann is committed to provide top-class education to students and a transparent government to people of Punjab.
