Kashmiri students stage demo at Jantar Mantar – PMSSS Fiasco

The protesting students told over phone from Delhi that they had been evicted from the campus and hostel following non-release of payment under PMSSS by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), alleging that the government of India “in a well-planned manner is hell-bent to ruin” the career of Kashmiri students.
“We were enrolled in Indigo Global College of Engineering Chandigarh and Rayat Bhara Mohali under centrally sponsored PMSSS. The scholarship money has not been released to the colleges despite the fact that we have fulfilled all the formalities,” said Arif Ahmad wani, one of the aggrieved students.
The students complained that they had also brought the issue of their suffering into the notice of MHRD authorities in New Delhi. “Every time we were assured redressal, but all in vain,” they added.
PMSSS was launched with much fanfare in 2011. In the first year, only 38 students availed the benefits but in 2012-13, at least 5000 students were admitted in various colleges of India.
A group of aggrieved students said their parents in an effort to save their career are applying for loans on higher interest rates while some of them have sold their ancestral properties.
On February 25, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president and MP Mehbooba Mufti met MHRD Minister Smriti Irani seeking an end to the problems being faced by the students of Jammu and Kashmir on account of poor implementation of PMSSS and the “fraud being played by certain NGOs and individuals facilitating these admissions.”
Irani had assured Mehbooba that the government of India (GoI) would extend all help to Kashmiri students under PMSSS and look into the complaints.