Punjab Unaided Colleges Association (PUCA) has termed the announcement of Vigilance inquiry by the state government into the distribution of Post Matric Scholarships to SC/ST students as a tactic to further delay the release of grants to technical institutions of Punjab.PUCA President Dr. Anshu Kataria says, “Punjab government had already investigated the matter four times. PUCA is ready for the probe of any collage associated with them. If any college found guilty, the scholarship for that particular college must be stopped, but rest of the colleges should not suffer for this.”Finance Secretary Manmohan Garg says, “Although the number of colleges indicted in the inquiry is very small. Just for amount of 30-50 crore, state government has not released Rs 500- 550 crore. It is totally unjustified.”
“Many colleges have been declared Non Performing Asset (NPA) by the banks because State Government has not paid the scholarship amount for 2015-16 year and many more would be declared NPA if Government would further delay in the release of scholarship funds” he added.Dr. Kataria said that on one hand state government is not releasing the scholarship amount and other hand state universities like IKG-PTU Jalandhar and MRS-PTU Bathinda are forcing them to deposit money.“If government would not release PMS amount immediately then at the time of admission, colleges might ask for the fees from these students in advance or they would be forced not to admit SC/ST students” Garg said.It is mentioned that the scholarship matter was raised in Punjab assembly, after which Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal ordered the vigilance probe.