MP Satnam Sandhu raises issue of arrears of Post-matric scholarship for SC students in Punjab

PTC News Desk: Rajya Sabha member Shri Satnam Singh Sandhu raised the issue of the release of pending Post-matric scholarship arrears for SC students in Punjab.

Raising the issue through Special Mentions, Shri Sandhu said, “In the last 10 years, Honorable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has taken many steps for the betterment of marginalized communities. However, in these 10 years, the most revolutionary or transformative work has been done in teaching poor and backward students. This is the biggest medium of antyodaya. In the last ten years, the Modi government has provided scholarships to more than 11 crore students from backward classes.”

Highlighting the plight of SC students in Punjab, Shri Sandhu elaborated, “But the previous state government in Punjab did injustice to these students. Despite the liability of the state government, Rs 1084.90 crore was not released to the SC students of Punjab. The scholarship amount was withheld by the then government of Punjab from 2017 to 2019.

For three whole years, the then-Punjab government avoided paying its liabilities. Even after the intervention of the National SC Commission, the state government did not take any action. Now the state government has decided to release 40%, i.e. Rs 366.00 crore, for the session 2017-19. Whereas 60%, i.e. Rs 718.90 crore is still pending.”

Raising his demand, he questioned, “Whose liability is this? Due to the withholding of the scholarship, countless students dropped out and many colleges were closed. Despite this, the institutions did not let the education of such poor children get hampered. My demand is that the liability of the pending post-matric scholarship amount should be fixed and this amount should be released to the colleges immediately.”

On this intervention, Shri Sandhu said to the press, “It is quite encouraging to see Honourable Prime Minister emancipating students from marginalised and minority communities at such a massive scale. In addition to the pre-existing ones, he has launched a range of new scholarships for poor and backward students. I believe that my voice in the parliament shall bring ng justice to the SC students of Punjab who suffered for three years due to the Congress Government in the state.”