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WELFARE MINISTER CLEARS STAND, ISSUES STATEMENT OF FACTS

CHANDIGARH, AUGUST 21

Taking cognizance of the media reports regarding non release of SC Scholarship, Mr. Sadhu Singh Dharamsot, Welfare Minister has issued the statement of facts clearly enumerating the statistics on the release of SC Scholarship grants in the previous years and balance of grants to be released.

Releasing the statement of facts Welfare Minister said that the grant under Post Matric Scholarship for SCs (PMS-SCs) is being given on the basis of 100% re-imbursement by GoI over and above the State Government committed liability of Rs.60.79 crore p.a. Under PMS-SCs. Divulging further detail he said that the claims upto the year 2014-15 has been completely reimbursed by Govt. of India and paid to educational institutions through Administrative Department like Higher Education, Technical Education, Medical Education.

He said that Welfare Department vide letter dated 30.12.2016 submitted the claim amounting to Rs.661.64 crore for the year 2015-16 and the claims amounting to Rs.780.31 crore for the year 2016-17 to Govt. of India. Therefore, the proposals amounting to Rs.1162. 00 crore are pending with the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment. Government of India.

He said that during the year 2015-16, an amount of Rs.280.00 crore was received from Govt. of India and this amount was released proportionately (50% of claims) to all the educational institutions covering Higher Education, Technical Education and Medical Education. Due to dispute in fee structure and writ petitions in Hon’ble High Court regarding the rate of admission fee in ITIs between Government and Private institutions, no payment have been made for the ITIs.

The Minister said that on 12.5.2017, an amount of Rs.115.73 crore for the year 2015-16 has been released by Government of India and this amount was not released in the absence of requisite budget provision and the same is being released to all educational institutions proportionately.

Mr. Dharamsot said that there were serious allegations during the Budget Session of Punjab Vidhan Sabha regarding fake admissions and scholarship claims by certain institutions. Accordingly, State Govt. has decided to carry out the audit of the accounts of the scheme and also of the accounts books and record of all the educational institutes in Punjab for the Scheme for the last five years i.e from 2011-12 to 2016-17 through Finance Department.

The Welfare Minister said that up to 18.8.2017, the audit of the 108 institutions covering 51,193 students has been completed out of 3606 institutions having 11,03,061 (Total number of students covered in 5 years) students. The audit of remaining institutions is under progress and as conveyed by FD the audit for the remaining insititutions will be completed by 31.08.2017 and till such time no scholarship grant will be reimbursed. However, the government may consider the cases for which the audit is already completed.

Regarding the pending claims for the year 2016-17, Govt. of India has not released any amount till date. The Chief Secretary, Punjab held a meeting with the Union Minister of Social Justice & Empowerment on 15.5.2017 and Mr. Sadhu Singh Dharamsot, Welfare Minister, Punjab also held a meeting with the Union Minister for social justice on 24.5.2017. As a follow up action Principal Secretary, Welfare, Punjab held meetings with concerned Joint Secretaries on 02.06.2017 for release of pending scholarship.

The Minister further said that in compliance of orders in CWP 15455 of 2014 , the Department of Welfare issued policy instructions regarding charging the admission fee from the SC students vide notification No.3/94/2016-SA-I/1493 date 22.7.2016, regarding admission of SC students in the institutions. Department of Welfare has issued detailed policy instructions on 02.08.2017 w.r.t the policy guidelines dated 22.7.2016 and departments have been asked to ensure that eligible SC students do not face any difficulty in getting admission without payment of fee. In case any institutes violates policy guidelines and deny admission to the eligible SC and OBC students, suitable legal action will be initiated against such institutions.

“However, in the case of scholarship to OBC category students, all the educational institutions are required to charge admission fee from the students and the fee will paid directly online to OBC students in the receipt of funds from G.O.I.” he added.

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