SOROOR AHMED analyses the dereliction of duty on the part of the Nitish administration in implementing the Central government’s scholarship scheme for 5,430 poor students of minorities, and concludes that this is only a tip of the iceberg.
One example is enough to confirm the anarchy and chaos prevailing in the Bihar government, especially in its Minority Welfare department. While chief minister Nitish Kumar wastes no time to claim that his government has been doing its best for the uplift of Muslims, the central government scholarship meant for 5,430 poor students of the community was criminally allowed to lapse just because of the sheer negligence of the state government machinery. The students were to get between Rs 5,000 and 12,000 a year. Thus the total amount allowed to lapse is between Rs five and six crore.
It needs to be mentioned that following the recommendations of the Sachar Committee Report the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced several scholarships for the minority students. There were in all three types of scholarship. The number one scholarship was for the 20,000 professional and technical students of the minority communities all over the country. Bihar’s quota for this scholarship was 1,456. Of this figure, barring eight the rest 1,448 scholarships were meant for Muslims. The last day for submitting forms for this was November 30, 2007.
All the formalities have been finalised and the scholarships are being released by the Centre to the deserving students. However, in Bihar the beneficiaries are yet to get intimation letters, but they are not likely to get them soon.
Incidentally, of the 20,000 scholarships given all over the country 50 per cent went to girls, though the quota fixed for them was only 30 per cent. Perhaps nobody ever imagined that there are so many Muslim girls in the technical and professional courses. But the selection of 50 per cent girls only suggests that so far technical and professional education is concerned, Muslim girls are almost on par with the boys. This scholarship exploded many myths woven by the media and opinion-makers about the education of Muslim women. In some states as high as 65 per cent of those who got scholarship for technical education were girls.
The other two types of Central government scholarships were for post-matriculation and pre-matriculation students. While the date for pre-matriculation scholarship is yet to be announced, the last date for the submission of the post-matriculation scholarship was February 15, 2008.
Unfortunately the Bihar government failed miserably and allowed the scholarships to lapse. As in the case of scholarship for technical/professional courses, the forms of the post-matriculation scholarship also were to be submitted to the Minority Welfare Department of the respective state governments.
First, for the reasons best known to those in power in Bihar, the Minority Welfare Department of the state government did not make any announcement of this scholarship till the fag end of January last, when some newspapers carried small announcement. Not only that, the Minority Welfare Department of the state government did not distribute a single form to any of the students. This notwithstanding the fact that provision for administrative and allied expenditure was made by the Central government. The state government machinery had to spend nothing on this count. There was special instruction by the Centre to the state governments that if the latter hire any person from outside for this work the payment would be made by the Centre.
Notwithstanding such clear-cut instructions to all the states, the Bihar government did nothing on this count. It was left up to some Muslim NGOs like the Bihar Rabita Committee, the Al-Khair Charitable Trust, Patna and Students Islamic Organisation (SIO), Bihar Zone, to publish and distribute the forms to about 25,000 students all over the state. These organisations also helped the students in getting their bank account opened as it was required by the government. They also assisted them in procuring residential as well as income certificates.
It is with the efforts of these three organisations that the forms could be submitted to the Minority Welfare Department in Patna by February 15, 2008. However, seeing the encouraging response of the students these NGOs even wrote to the Centre to extend the last date of the submission of form till February 29, 2008. Their argument was that since in Bihar the announcement of this scholarship was made in the last week of January and no arrangement whatsoever was made by the state government, the date should be extended. The Union Ministry of Minority Affairs accepted the demand and extended the date till February 29. However, this extension was not only for Bihar but for candidates from all over the country.
The candidates were supposed to submit their forms till February 29 to Minority Welfare Department in the respective state capitals. The Minority Welfare Departments of these states were supposed to make entry of all these forms, prepare a merit list and then send it to the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs, Delhi, by March 20 so that the scholarship amount could be released by the end of the financial year on March 31.
While other state governments managed to do it within the stipulated time and sent it by March 20 Bihar could not do so even by the end of the first week of April. The irony is that all this happened in spite of the repeated reminders by Al-Khair Charitable Trust, Bihar Rabita Committee and SIO through Press releases and telephone calls to the department. Even the officials of the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs reminded the state government about the last date, that is, March 20 for the forms to reach Delhi. But the forms could never reach Delhi. Sources inside the state government’s Minority Welfare Department told this correspondent that the forms could not be sent notwithstanding the fact that the merit list was prepared.
May sound bizarre, nevertheless true. These three NGOs offered to lend some hands to sort out about 25,000 forms because there was shortage of staff in the Minority Welfare Department of Bihar government. In fact they were not even paid by the officials of the state government though the Central fund was available for them.
While all this was happening, neither the chief minister’s secretariat nor the Minority Welfare Minister, Manzer Alam, took any interest in the whole exercise. Sources told this correspondent that while the Minority Welfare Secretary, Rasheed Ahmad Khan, was to retire on March 31, 2008 he did not take so much interest in it. In the last week of March the state government gave the additional charge of Minority Welfare to the state’s Home Secretary, Afzal Amanullah.
Some Muslim and secular social outfits see a great conspiracy in this serious lapse as the state government had not been taking any interest whatsoever in the central government scholarship from the very beginning. The BJP, the alliance partner in the Nitish ministry, was from the very beginning against the scholarship on the religious ground. At the same time the response of the Muslim officials of the state government was simply criminal.
This issue is going to become a major embarrassment for the chief minister personally too. Some prominent Muslims have demanded punishment to all those responsible for the dereliction of duty.
This is only a tip of the iceberg. In other Bihar government departments mal-functioning is quite visible. The state machinery totally failed in providing aid for the flood-victims last year. And in the state capital the drains built with so much pomp and show collapsed before their completion. This notwithstanding the fact that the Centre has sanctioned Rs 3,580 crore for the beautification of Patna and Rs 460 crore for Bodh Gaya.