Mumbai Division of the Students Islamic Organisation of India on June 19 organised a protest demonstration at Azad Maidan, Mumbai to protest against the lethargic and step-motherly approach of the State Government towards minorities. Students from every nook and corner of Mumbai gathered in large numbers to express their anger against the Government.
“Due to the lethargic attitude of the Congress-NCP government and the callous attitude of the authorities towards minorities, Rs 15 Crore sent by the Central Government for clear sanctioned applications, is still lying in the Bank of Maharashtra,” said Mr. Adil, Secretary SIO Maharashtra. He was speaking to media persons on this occasion.
After this demonstration a delegation of SIO along with CID and Police met Joint Director of Higher Education, Mr. Shantikumar Gupta and explained to him the total scenario going on in the education department. A memorandum was submitted to the Joint Director, who assured that some action will be taken.
The Central Government allocated 64,400 scholarships for the students of minority communities in Maharashtra under the post-matric scholarship scheme for the year 2009-10. Due to improper and poor publicity of the scheme by the Government of Maharashtra, only 24,064 applications were received by the administration. After due verification and scrutiny of the applications by the Directorate of Higher Education the data of the students as well as the proposal was sent to the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs. Later, the Central Government cleared Rs 15 crore for the scheme in the state. Ideally and legally, the said amount should have been given to the students by April 2010. But due to the lethargic attitude of the Congress-NCP government and the callous attitude of the authorities towards minorities, the amount of Rs 15 crore is still lying in the Bank of Maharashtra.
The information from the Directorate of Higher Education has revealed that the Director of Higher Education has constituted an inquiry committee for cross checking the students’ details, despite the fact that the Central Government had cleared the data. The committee has also reduced the scholarship amount to the already awarded scholarships. The amount of scholarship has been reduced to just Rs 1400 despite the fact that the Central Government had approved Rs 7,000 to the same students. This unconstitutional and illegal interference by the Director shows bias towards the minorities.
Also, the committee has created a difference of over Rs 3 crore in the funds received from the Central Government. This again proves the ill intention of the authorities. Does this mean that the proposal submitted by the Director of Higher Education to the Central Government was fake?
The same scheme has been successfully implemented in the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh which are comparatively considered to be backward states. Why has the scheme been made unsuccessful in the state of Maharashtra?
The SIO has demanded from the Government to make a free and fair inquiry into the matter and arrest and prosecute the officials who are misusing their positions and taking unconstitutional and illegal steps. Also the list of students, to whom the scholarship has been approved by the Central Government, be made public and the amount received from the Central Government be transferred to the students/colleges immediately. Complete fees of professional courses be reimbursed without any delay and also the remaining amount of the previous two years be paid to the students.
The organisation has also warned the Government that they would resort to legal course if the demands were not met soon.