‘PM Scholarship not enough, pay more or leave’

The Prime Minister’s Scholarship Programme that was expected to benefit at least 25000 students from Jammu and Kashmir is learnt to have proved to be damp squib, giving sleepless nights to the students who got admission under this programme in different colleges across India.
Scores of parents from different towns of Kashmir Saturday staged a protest in Press Enclave Srinagar alleging that college authorities are forcing their children to vacate the college on the pretext that Ministry of Human Resource Development has rejected to bear the expenses of these students. The aggrieved parents said that under Prime Minister’s Scholarship Scheme all but 23 students pursuing B-Pharmacy had been admitted in Shekhawati College of Pharmacy in Rajhstan last year.
“A Kashmiri based NGO helped our children to take admissions in the said College but the irony is that the College authorities are now forcing Kashmiri students to vacate the College,” one of parents from Kupwara Farooq Ahmed said.
“We were asked to get our fee released from MHRD in order to be illegible for appearing in examinations,” said Ajaz Rasool of Budgam, who is pursuing B Pharmacy degree in the college.
He said authorities in college asked them to take their certificates and leave the college after one and half year just because the state government has failed to meet their promises to take all responsibilities of such students studying under this scheme.
“They threatened us to vacate from the college and return to our homes. We cannot afford such a big loss,” he said.
Ajaz said a group of hundred students, including him were admitted in the college last year (2012) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) had sent their documents to college authorities after verification.
“But college authorities said they have not received our fee from MHRD till date. We all will end up here in depression. We are facing severe inconveniences from the authority. I wonder how government can play with our careers. Had it their own benefit through this scheme they would have acted immediately but it us common middle class and poor people who suffer,” he said.
All the 23 students and their parents said that their future was at stake,” The Prime Minister’s Special Scholarship Scheme (PMSSS) was launched in 2010 on the recommendation of an expert group under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
It was aimed at encouraging Kashmiri students from families with income below Rs 4.5 lakh per annum to study in colleges outside the State on a fully-funded scholarship.
“We came here in 2012 and have completed three semesters. But authorities have abandoned us in mid-session,” students said.
MHRD in its Inter Ministerial Committee (IMC) on November 26 had decided to entertain all the students who were denied the scholarship. It had asked AICTE to cover all the Kashmiri students who have been admitted in different colleges across the country during the session 2012-13.