SFI condemns the JKPMSS (Jammu and Kashmir Prime Minister Special Scholarship) department of AICTE (All India Council of Technical Education) for not releasing full scholarship of the odd semesters to the students hailing from Jammu and Kashmir. While the college fees have been processed by the JKPMSS Department, the maintainence fee remains pending.
Upon contacting the JKPMSS office bearers in AICTE, it was conveyed that the maintainance charges will not be released till the colleges remain shut. The office bearers cited it as the Ministry’s order and claimed that there was no need for maintainance charges as the students were not present in the colleges physically and they were studying from home which, according to them, should incur no maintainance charges. The reason given for freezing of maintainance charges is highly pathetic and illogical.
The inaccessibility of 4G internet in the valley has made it difficult for students to attend online classes. Online education, downloading study materials, research and project preparation etc is highly difficult with 2G internet in place. The students have to incur additional charges to buy extra data packs for the extended online classes and for the installation of broadband services and its monthly fee, if required. Procurement of a feasible device for online education (phone/laptop) to cope up with online classes and also with projects and practicals in some courses is essential too.
Also, students have no access to college and university libraries, so they depend solely on the “2G internet in valley” and physical copies of books. The students who are in their final years of graduation also need to acquire materials and books to prepare for their entrances to continue their post graduation education. Maintainance charges should have been disbursed for coping with the online education but taking physical classes as an excuse, the department has chosen to freeze them.
The non-disbursal of full scholarship will also lead to drop-outs from the colleges. The scholarship is given on the basis of need and merit to the students having family income of less than 8 lakh. Every year, students from lower economic background depend entirely on the scholarship for their higher studies and if denied the full scholarship, they will be forced to drop-out from the colleges.
SFI condemns, in the most harsh words, the apathetic decision of the government and the JKPMSS department to stall the maintainance charges and urge them to release the full scholarhip as soon as possible.
VP Sanu (President)
Mayukh Biswas (General Secretary)
