Chandigarh Reiterating his commitment to impart quality education and scholarships to poor students, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Thursday announced to open six special government schools to impart free education, hostel and food to the underprivileged meritorious students at par with the best educational institutions in the state. “We will hire best available faculty for these state-of-the-art institutions, which would cost Rs 25 crore each,” the Leader of the House disclosed during the Question Hour on fourth day of the five-day winter session of the Vidhan Sabha here. Badal made this statement after the treasury and Opposition benches indulged in allegations and counter-
allegations of “discrimination by Centre” and “non-implementation by state” over a question asked by a SAD MLA Harpreet Singh on the status and conditions of the Postgraduate Scholarship Scheme for the students of the Scheduled Castes and the Backward Classes. Putting to rest the controversy, which he termed as “unnecessary and uncalled for”, the Akali patriarch said Punjab was the first and the only state, which had introduced a scheme to provide Rs 30,000 annual scholarship to the meritorious students, irrespective of their economic status. “We are taking our initiative further by opening 6 special schools for intelligent poor students, who score 80 per cent and above marks in the government schools,” declared the Chief Minister, while stating that in the first phase, these institutions would be opened in big cities and would start functioning from the next academic session. Earlier, Welfare Minister Gulzar Singh Ranike, in reply to the question, submitted that under the Centrally-sponsored Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme, the students belonging to Scheduled Castes, whose parents earn less than Rs 2.5 lakh per annum, were reimbursed maintenance allowance and compulsory non-refundable fees. Besides this, Rs 1,600 for study tour, Rs 1,600 for typing printing charge and Rs 1,200 book allowance was also provided to each student per annum. Joining the issue, Chief Parliamentary Secretary Pawan Kumar Teenu alleged discrimination by the Centre in not releasing requisite grant for the last two fiscals under this scheme and not accepting the proposal to benefit another 1.49 lakh students this fiscal. “Centre is bias against Punjab and Gujarat whereas other Congress-ruled states are regularly getting these grants,” alleged Teenu, while requesting Leader of Opposition Sunil Jakhar to approach the Centre along with the Chief Minister to get the pending grants released. Trashing the charges, Jakhar instead alleged non-implementation of Centrally-sponsored schemes and threatened to move a motion against the Finance Minister, whom he accused of “misleading the House during the last session on transfer of Rs 110 crore scholarship fund.” He dared the treasury benches for holding a debate on the issue. Supporting Teenu’s allegations, Ranike accused the concerned Union Minister of rejecting thrice state’s case for seeking grants under this scheme. Heating up the discussion, Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia asked Congress MLA Charanjit Singh Channi, who was pleading the case of the Scheduled Caste students, that where did his children study. Channi alleged that the state government was depriving the poor students of English studies by forcing them to study Punjabi in government schools. Expressing concern, Education Minister Sikander Singh Maluka admitted that the government schools only cater to the poor students and no politician, bureaucrat, businessman, journalist or any well-off person admit their children in the government schools.
allegations of “discrimination by Centre” and “non-implementation by state” over a question asked by a SAD MLA Harpreet Singh on the status and conditions of the Postgraduate Scholarship Scheme for the students of the Scheduled Castes and the Backward Classes. Putting to rest the controversy, which he termed as “unnecessary and uncalled for”, the Akali patriarch said Punjab was the first and the only state, which had introduced a scheme to provide Rs 30,000 annual scholarship to the meritorious students, irrespective of their economic status. “We are taking our initiative further by opening 6 special schools for intelligent poor students, who score 80 per cent and above marks in the government schools,” declared the Chief Minister, while stating that in the first phase, these institutions would be opened in big cities and would start functioning from the next academic session. Earlier, Welfare Minister Gulzar Singh Ranike, in reply to the question, submitted that under the Centrally-sponsored Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme, the students belonging to Scheduled Castes, whose parents earn less than Rs 2.5 lakh per annum, were reimbursed maintenance allowance and compulsory non-refundable fees. Besides this, Rs 1,600 for study tour, Rs 1,600 for typing printing charge and Rs 1,200 book allowance was also provided to each student per annum. Joining the issue, Chief Parliamentary Secretary Pawan Kumar Teenu alleged discrimination by the Centre in not releasing requisite grant for the last two fiscals under this scheme and not accepting the proposal to benefit another 1.49 lakh students this fiscal. “Centre is bias against Punjab and Gujarat whereas other Congress-ruled states are regularly getting these grants,” alleged Teenu, while requesting Leader of Opposition Sunil Jakhar to approach the Centre along with the Chief Minister to get the pending grants released. Trashing the charges, Jakhar instead alleged non-implementation of Centrally-sponsored schemes and threatened to move a motion against the Finance Minister, whom he accused of “misleading the House during the last session on transfer of Rs 110 crore scholarship fund.” He dared the treasury benches for holding a debate on the issue. Supporting Teenu’s allegations, Ranike accused the concerned Union Minister of rejecting thrice state’s case for seeking grants under this scheme. Heating up the discussion, Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia asked Congress MLA Charanjit Singh Channi, who was pleading the case of the Scheduled Caste students, that where did his children study. Channi alleged that the state government was depriving the poor students of English studies by forcing them to study Punjabi in government schools. Expressing concern, Education Minister Sikander Singh Maluka admitted that the government schools only cater to the poor students and no politician, bureaucrat, businessman, journalist or any well-off person admit their children in the government schools.
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