Chandigarh, February 26, 2021 (Yes Punjab News)
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) targeted Captain Amarinder Singh government over the problems faced by the Dalit students due to not getting scholarship for more than a year. On the issue, senior leader of the party and Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Punjab Assembly, Harpal Singh Cheema on Friday said that Dalit students of Punjab had been in a lot of trouble for not getting post-matric scholarship, due to which the education of more than 50,000 Dalit students of Punjab is in danger.
Cheema said that the degree of students was held up due to non-disbursal of funds for the scholarship. “Because of this, thousands of Dalit students have to leave their studies in between. But instead of helping the Dalit students financially, Captain’s minister embezzled the funds meant for their studies,” he added.
Cheema said that Cabinet Minister in Captain Amarinder’s government, Sadhu Singh Dharamsot, embezzled the money meant for the post-matric scholarship for the Dalit students; the ministers and officials jointly scammed crores of rupees into the scholarship fund and the government instead of any action, gave them a clean cheat.
“Due to the embezzlement and scam in the SC post-matric scholarship fund, today the condition of Dalit students of Punjab remains miserable. Due to non-disbursal of the scholarship funds, not only the students but also the condition of colleges has deteriorated,” he added.
Cheema said that the survival of over 1,600 colleges was at stake because these funds had still not been released and they were on their verge of closure.
He further said that while many colleges in collusion with the minister had got the funds of Dalit students passed without teaching them. Cheema said that to counter the slack that Captain Amarinder had been getting from the opposition and the media, he formulated a committee to resolve the issue of disbursal of the post-matric scholarship fund, however, more than a month had passed since the committee was formed, but no concrete measures was taken to address the crisis of the Dalit students, to make their lives better.
He said that after the formation of the committee, it was announced that the committee would resolve the issue in three days, but more than a month has passed, nothing has been done yet.
Reacting to the BJP leader and recently appointed chairman of the National Commission for Schedule Castes, Vijay Sampla’s statement on investigating the scholarship scam, Cheema said that Sampla should first tell that when he was the Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, what had he done for the welfare of the Dalit students. “Many Dalit students like Rohit Bemula committed suicide by being fed up with the anti-Dalit policies of the Modi government, why did not Sampla say anything on it?,” said Cheema.
He said that the Central government itself had not been giving fellowship to minority and Dalit students for more than a year. “Sampla from his union government, should first provide fellowships to those research scholars,” he added.
Cheema said that both, BJP and Congress were anti-Dalit and anti-poor. He said that both parties only worry about the Dalit vote bank. He said that all their drama was only to get the votes of Dalits. Cheema said that during the budget session, the Aam Aadmi Party will raise the issue of problems faced by Dalit students due to not getting the scholarships.
“We will also raise the post-matric scholarship scam done by Captain government’s minister Dharamsot in the Vidhan Sabha and will demand action on it,” said Cheema. He said that if the Captain government does not release the scholarship of the Dalit students at the earliest, then the Aam Aadmi Party will protest against it across the state.
