Senior Congress Leader and MLA Inderwal, Ghulam Mohammad Saroori today urged Prime Minister of India Narinder Singh Modi and Union HRD Minister Simriti Irani to intervene in the non-payment of scholarship to 4,000 students from J&K who got admission under the Prime Minister's special scholarship scheme (PMSS).
"He has urged Prime Minister kindly intervene in the matter and ask the HRD Ministry to ensure proper implementation of the scheme", Saroori said in a statement. "Government of India has devised a scheme to provide scholarships to 5,000 students from Jammu and Kashmir every year but during last financial year Government of India's Human Resource Development (HRD) has placed 9, 000 J&K students under different institutes in the country under PMSSS scheme, but out of 9,000 students only 5,000 students got the scholarship through HRD remaining 4,000 JK students who had cleared their first and second semesters did not receive the scholarships so far.
As the MHRD has not released the sanctioned amount, colleges are forcing the aggrieved students to either deposit fee or leave college. It is as such requested that Ministry of Human Resource Development may take the call and release the withheld fees for all such students as per the stated policy so as to save career of thousands of Jammu and Kashmir students. He has urged them to look into the matter so that eligible students do not give up their studies outside the state,” Saroori said.
“Due to withholding of PMSSS to these students, the parents in an effort to save the career of their children are applying for loans on higher interest rates while some of them have sold their ancestral properties. Unilaterally with-holding of PMSSS has forced most of these students to leave their studies midway and return to their home”, Saroori said and adding that J&K students have telephonically informed or met me and have told me (Saroori) that their parents sent them for Engineer, Hotel Management, nursing, Bachelor’s degree and others courses under PMSSS but the course otherwise was unaffordable for them. However, the scheme has proved a damp squib and the students have forced to rethink on continuing their studies as they have no source of income to pay the college fee. Even many have returned home with a deep sense of frustration.Saroori demanded that scheme to be open-ended with no cap on the number of students benefited from the scheme so that the career of students is not jeopardized. He has also requested J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Opposition Rajya Sabha Leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, Rajya Sabha MP and President JKPCC Saif-Ud-Din Soz to use their good offices for getting the scholarship released for the remaining 4,000 JK students.