Students led by the education cell of the Hynñiewtrep Youth Council (HYC) today decided to give the State government five days to credit pending scholarships into their account.
The decision was taken at a meeting held near the Shillong Law College in Dhanketi here wherein a number of students attended to express opposition over the delay in disbursing scholarship for 2021-2022.
HYC education secretary Enlang Sawian said the government by November 15 should disburse the money to the students or face strong agitation, even putting the Secretariat under lock and key.
On Wednesday, the pressure group had decided to march to the Secretariat on the matter with an expectation of over 700 participants. Soon after the announcement, Education Minister Lahkmen Rymbui immediately made a statement informing about the release of the pre-matric and post-matric scholarship to 61,116 students.
The total amount of the scholarship to be released is Rs 169, 72,91,6778 which will be paid to the individual bank accounts of students through PFMS.
While the district administration had not granted them permission to hold a peaceful march, which is against the order under Section 144 of the CrPC passed last month following violence in an unemployment rally, the rally was also not allowed following the decision to release the pending scholarship.
At the gathering, Sawian said the group will also meet the education minister in the coming days to demand constitution of a scholarship cell to exclusively deal with scholarship issue of students.
He also questioned the delay in giving out the scholarship when the centre had already release funds. “Is the MDA government also planning to buy MLAs and the public for the upcoming elections with the student’s scholarship?” he questioned and urged students not to allow anymore delays.
A student from West Khasi Hills said that students from rural area are dependent on the scholarship to pay for their fees and the delay has forced them to find jobs and in the process miss their classes.
Meanwhile HYC general secretary Roy Kupar Synrem said that the state once considered as the education hub of the North East has now turned into a “gambling hub under the MDA.”
“Had the students not announced to hold the rally the state government would not have bothered to announce release of the scholarship that has been released by the central government from 2021,” he said.
