Chandigarh, June 15
The Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) state SC wing on Tuesday held hunger strike and staged district-wide protests across the state against the scam perpetrated by the Captain Amarinder Singh-led Congress government in the post-matric scholarship scheme for Dalit students. In a statement issued from the party headquarters here, senior leader of the party and Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Punjab Assembly, Harpal Singh Cheema said that hunger strikes and demonstrations led by district-incharges of the party’s SC wing were held in front of the offices of the deputy commissioners in all the districts. A large number of district leaders and party volunteers participated in the protests and raised slogans against the ruling Congress government, demanding registration of cases against Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal and Social Welfare Minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot under the SC/ST Act.
Harpal Singh Cheema said that the Captain Amarinder Singh-led Congress government had squandered crores of rupees in the scholarships of two lakh Dalit students and jeopardized the future of the students. He said that the Aam Aadmi Party’s struggle would continue till a case was registered against ministers Manpreet Singh Badal and Sadhu Singh Dharamsot. Cheema further said that the investigation report submitted by senior IAS officer Kirpa Shankar Saroj on the post-matric scholarship scam revealed that the scholarships were given by the Social Welfare Minister to his crony managers of fake colleges. “As a result, private colleges have not received funds and lakhs of Dalit students have been deprived of their right to education,” he added. He said that earlier the Akali Dal Badal led by Parkash Singh Badal and the BJP government had robbed the rights of Dalits and now the Congress government led by Captain Amarinder Singh was robbing the rights of Dalits.
The LoP said that the Aam Aadmi Party had raised its voice against the Dalit students’ scholarship scam and even though the Captain government had released some amount to private colleges; but Dalit students will not be able to sit for their exams till the government releases the balance amount of Rs 1,539 crore. Cheema said that Captain Amarinder Singh’s government had robbed the rights of Dalits during its tenure. “While the government has embezzled the scholarship money of Dalit students, it has also discriminated in giving jobs to Dalit youth and promotions to employees,” he said. Cheema said that with the Punjab Assembly elections due in a few months, the Captain government was doing a drama by releasing some amount of post-matric scholarship amount, but the people of Punjab would take account of the injustice done by the Punjab Congress government and would give a befitting reply to Captain Amarinder Singh.
