Chandigarh, April 18: Punjab Youth Congress leaders, led by the secretary, Indian Youth Congress (IYC), and Punjab affairs incharge, Hemant Ogale, on Tuesday staged a protest against the NDA government’s failure to release the grant of Rs 1,615.79 crore to Punjab under the post-matric scholarship scheme.
As a preventive measure, Hemant Ogale, Punjab Youth Congress president Amarpreet Singh Lally, MLAs Dalvir Singh Goldy, Barindermeet Pahra and Kulbir Singh Zira, Youth Congress leaders Daman Bajwa, Mohit Mohindra and Kamaljit Singh Brar and their supporters were arrested near the Punjab Congress office in Sector 15 here. They were later let off.
Amarpreet Singh Lally said the Central government had not released the funds sanctioned under the post-matric scholarship scheme. He said as per the information got under the RTI Act, arrears for the year 2015-2016 (Rs 328.72 crore), 2016-2017 (Rs 719.52 crore) and 2017-2018 (Rs 567.55 crore) had not been released, leading to problems for the students belonging to the Scheduled Castes.
He alleged that the Centre was ignoring the welfare of Dalit students in the state where 32 per cent of the population belonged to the SC community.
Source: http://www.tribuneindia.com
