Chandigarh, August 9, 2024 (Yes Punjab News)
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today said scheduled caste students in Punjab were suffering due to the apathy of both the previous Congress and the present Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government while demanding immediate release of the State’s share of Rs 250 crore in order to ensure the release of the central share of Rs 930 crore under the SC Post Matric Scholarship scheme to SC students in the State.
In a statement here, senior leader Dr Daljit Singh Cheema said “SC students should not be made to suffer due to the criminal negligence displayed by both the previous Congress and present AAP government”.
He said while the previous Congress government had refused to release its share under the scheme for three consecutive years from 2017 to 2020 during the course of which the Post Matric Scholarship scheme was discontinued leading to denial of scholarships to around three lakh SC students, the AAP government had not released its share of Rs 250 crore due to which the central government had withheld its share of Rs 930 crore under the scheme.
Asking the AAP government to walk the talk, Dr Daljit Cheema said the Aam Aadmi Party purportedly claimed to champion education but it was sleeping over such an important matter. He said the AAP government’s track record on both education and health was the poorest among all governments in Punjab.
“Both the education and health sectors are in doldrums but the chief minister is busy resorting to propaganda exercises like creating Mohalla Clinics at the cost of closing down rural dispensaries”.
Demanding that the State release its share in the scheme as per the 40:60 ratios between the State and the Centre, the SAD leader said “the enrollment of SC students in educational institutions in the State has fallen drastically from 3.17 lakh during the tenure of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) government in 2016-17 to 2.14 lakh in 2023-24.
In case the government does not release its share even now the strength of SC students in institutes of higher education will fall even further”, he added. EOM
