Act against erring officials, says SC/ST Welfare Dept

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, January 16

The Department of Welfare of SC and ST has demanded action against the sanctioning authority of various state departments for failing to grant 36,233 post-matric scholarships.

In a letter to Technical Education and Industrial Training Department, DPI (colleges), DPI (schools), Director, SCERT, Animal Husbandry Department and Agriculture Department two days ago, the Director, Department of SC/ST Welfare, wrote that there was an “unexplained” delay in sanctioning post-matric scholarships to eligible students.

Demanding action against the sanctioning authority for keeping these cases pending for a long time, the Director said though the applications of the students were sent to the officials concerned through the respective educational institutions, the same had not been processed, causing harassment to the students.

So necessary disciplinary action needed to be taken against these negligent officers, said the director.

The director wrote that in 2014, a total of 2,96,258 applications were sent by various educational institutions to the sanctioning authorities for post-matric scholarship to the students. While 8,810 applications were rejected, 251,215 applications were sanctioned. But 36,233 applications were kept pending for reasons not known, he added.

The post-matric scholarship is a central-sponsored scheme to award scholarships to meritorious students belonging to the economically weaker sections of minority communities so as to provide them better opportunities for higher education.

After prodded by the SC/ST Welfare Department, the Department of School Education, Senior Secondary, today issued directions to all circle education officers and district education officers to submit details of all pending applications in the next two days.