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Minority students left in the lurch over scholarships
Parents of over 200 minority students are anxiously waiting for the State government to release the much hyped ‘Overseas Scholarship’ for 2015-16 so that the career of the students does not get affected.
Hyderabad: Parents of over 200 minority students are anxiously waiting for the State government to release the much hyped ‘Overseas Scholarship’ for 2015-16 so that the career of the students does not get affected.
Students from middle-class families who hoped of making it big, by getting higher education from reputed institutes abroad are now left in a state of despair, owing to the inordinate delay in releasing the ‘overseas scholarship’.
The parents of these students had sent the children abroad taking loans by pledging gold and from private money lenders as well and have been eagerly waiting for the government to release the scholarship amount. They have already completed first two semesters and are now facing a crisis.
The Minority Welfare Department had selected 234 students during the second phase (2015-16) after verification of documents, I-20 certificates, GRE and IELTS results. All the students who were selected left to various countries for higher education in December 2015 and January 2016.
Masroor Siddiqui, father of a student speaking to The Hans India said that they were told that the government would release the funds within a month or two.
With this assurance they raised money from various sources including selling family jewellery. But the delay has not only increased the anxiety of parents, but also began affecting the studies of students who had reached half-way mark of their career.
Hoping that the government would release the funds within a month, I had arranged the money selling all my family jewellery.
Syed Musharraf Ali Anwar and Md Lateef who sent their sons to United States, Md Mubeen Khan whose son has gone to Australia also said that if the government does not take a quick decision and release the scholarship, their children would be in great trouble.
The government has earmarked a budget of Rs 30 crore for the scheme, it had released Rs 7.5 crore in the first phase and same was released in Rs 7.5 crore for second phase (2015-16). Even though most of the students selected in first phase benefitted from the scheme, the students of second phase have not received any money so far.
Interestingly, the government has also doubled the scholarship amount from Rs 10 lakh to 20 lakh for 2016-17.According to officials of Minority Welfare Department, it has been two months since they forwarded the proposals, but it still remains in a state of ‘freeze’ at the Treasury Department.
“The details were collected from all District Minority Welfare officers and forwarded to the Treasury about two months ago, a senior officer of TS Minority Welfare Department said.
