Colleges to charge fee from SC students

Sameer Singh

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, September 23

Citing a delay of four years in the disbursal of funds under the post-matric scholarship scheme and Covid-induced losses, more than 1,600 unaided colleges and universities of the state have decided to charge fee from Scheduled Caste (SC) students from October.

In a letter issued to Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, the Joint Association of Colleges, Punjab, has asked the state government to disburse Rs 309-crore scholarship funds released by the Centre in March. It claims scholarship funds to the tune of Rs 1,850 crore have not been paid for four years. The announcement was made during a press conference here on Wednesday.

Talking to The Tribune, Gurmeet Singh Dhaliwal, chairman of the association, said, “Ever since the Centre introduced the post-matric scholarship scheme in 2010, all unaided colleges and universities had been providing education to SC students without fee. But in 2016, the government stopped releasing funds under the scheme.”

He said, “Today, the situation is such that scholarship funds to the tune of Rs 1,850 crore are outstanding. It is forcing many academic institutions and colleges to close down.”