Mumbai:
Raising serious questions over the implementation of the
government schemes, a Bhiwandi based
NGO on Wednesday claimed that despite thousands of students
applying for the government scholarship from
the minority concentrated city near Mumbai, just 120 of them have actually been
benefited from the said scheme so far.
"In the last four years, more than
eighteen thousand students from Bhiwandi have applied for the Pre-Matric
scholarship. But so far only 120 of them have benefited from the
government scheme and have received the scholarship amount",
Tanzeem Ansari, president of Movement for Peace and Justice (MPJ),
Bhiwandi said while addressing a press conference on Wednesday.
He also said that in most of the
cases the students have received confirmation that their
scholarships had been sanctioned. Yet they had not received any
amount.
"What's more surprising is that when
we contact the concerned department for details, they only give
information about the number of students whose scholarships have
been sanctioned. But they do not have or do not want to give any
record of how many students have actually received the
scholarships", Ansari said.
Ansari also alleged that the
concerned department in Bhiwandi had always been negligent
vis-à-vis the government schemes for the minorities. He alleged
that initially they offered only limited number of application
forms. After local MLA Rasheed Tahir Momin intervened, number of
forms increased but rejections also increased with the same ratio.
"On enquiry, it is said that the
forms were filled incorrectly. But the fact is that with the help
of teachers and social workers, we had run the campaigns to make
sure that the forms have no mistakes", Ansari said.
The year-wise details of the
application forms, according to Ansari are: 1449 students applied
for scholarship in 2008-09, 28 got the scholarship. Of the total
3029 who applied in 2009-10, only 38 got the scholarship. In
2010-11, 54 students out of 6965 could get the scholarship. In
2011-12, a total of 8336 students applied for the student but so
far no one has received any confirmation.
Bhiwandi, a minority concentrated
city located about 50 kms from Mumbai has 87 Municipal and 80
private schools with an estimated student strength of 1,01,466.
Pre-Matric scholarship is part of the Prime Minister's 15-point
program launched by the Congress led UPA government for the
empowerment of the minorities.
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