JOIN USTen SC/ST students wait for scholarship
The ten SC/ST students pursuing II year Masters in Social Works in Meridian College were supposed to receive Government scholarship for SC/ST students in April, 2011. It has been six months now, but the scholarship amount has not yet reached their hands.
The students have been running from pillar to post requesting the authorities concerned to deposit their amount, but their plea has been falling on deaf ears.
Due to economic reasons, the students have failed to pay their college fee of the previous two semesters.
Sharing the grievance with Deccan Herald, a II year MSW student Ravi Bhandari from Dharwad said that the post graduation students in St Aloysius College, Sri Devi College, Karavali college and other colleges in the City have received scholarship amount, but it is only the students from Meridian College who are facing the problem.
“We do not have count of the number of times we have visited the Social Welfare Department office. Every time we are given irrelevant answers. If we go to the Taluk Social Welfare office they ask us to go to the District Social Welfare office and if we go to the District Social Welfare office, they say that the issue does not come under their control. The officers are just not bothered. Once they say that amount has not been sanctioned, the next time they say that they will deposit in two days and at times they just ignore us. We are frustrated,” says Ravi Bhandari.
Department’s letter
Interestingly, a letter issued by the Social Welfare Department to the Meridian College Principal, dated March 4, 2011says that the Department has sanctioned scholarship amount of Rs 1,44,247 to the seven MSW students of Meridian College. The letter says, “Out of Rs 1,44,247 scholarship amount, Rs 1,887 maintenance amount has been deposited to the bank accounts of the students and Rs 1,42,360 has been deposited to the bank account of the College Principal.”
The letter mentions that the amount is sanctioned to seven students namely, Girish, Kashi Bai Lalitha, Pampapathi, Ravi Bhandari, Sathish Somappa Mestri, Umesh Rathod and Arun Kumar, while rest of the three names have been left out.
According to Ravi Bhandari, the Taluk Social Welfare officers once sent back the students citing error in the College Principal’s bank account. “If there was error in the Principal’s account, then how come the scholarship money was deposited to the same amount previous year? Even if there was any error, does it take six months for them to fix it?” he asks.
The students also suspect the Department staff of misusing the sanctioned amount by depositing it in some other bank and reaping benefits from it. When asked District Social Welfare Officer Arun said the delay was due to the non-sanctioning of the amount. “We will deposit the amount in the bank accounts within three days,” he said.
However the students say that they have lost faith as they have been hearing the same answer over the last six months. In fact, the students had met Zilla Panchayat CEO Dr K N Vijay Prakash 10 days ago and received assurance that the money will be transferred to the account on September 19. “It has been a week now, but we have not yet received the money,” says a student.
On the other hand college authorities said that they are finding it difficult to function due to the delay in receiving the fee.