Minority scholarships: Deadline gone, 19 states yet to send lists to centre

By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,

New Delhi: How government machinery in India, irrespective of political parties that are at the helm of affair in the Centre or states, is shamelessly lethargic in implementing minority welfare programs is evident from centrally-run mega scholarship schemes meant for minority students and so running much behind schedule.

August 30 was the last date for states to send their list of candidates to the Central Government for scholarship schemes – pre-matric, post-matric and merit-cum-means – for the year 2009-2010 but, according to the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs which is running the schemes, by September 30 majority of 35 states/Union Territories could not send the list.

19 states which could not send their list of recommended candidates for pre-matric scholarships include Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka (ruled by BJP) and Delhi, Haryana and Jammu & Kashmir (ruled by Congress). The list also includes states that are run by regional political parties like Orissa (ruled by Biju Janata Dal). Rest of 19 states include Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Tripura and Uttarakhand. The list brings home another important point: systemic and structural apathy towards minorities is a pan-India phenomenon.

Some states failed to send in time the list of candidates for pre-matric scholarships but they did not repeat the mistake for other two schemes. In this category are Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Tripura and Uttarakhand. But some failed in both pre-matric and post-matric schemes. They are Delhi (run by Congress and where a Muslim-dominated district is in the list of 90 minority-concentration districts) and Punjab.

The worst performers (those who could not send their list for any of the three mega scholarship schemes) are Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Nagaland, Orissa, Chandigarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu and Lakshadweep.

States that didn’t send list of candidates to centre

The top performers (the states which sent in time lists of candidates for all three scholarship schemes and funds have been sanctioned to them) are just three: Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

There are some other states which probably sent all three lists a little late and so their cases are still under process at the Union Minority Affairs Ministry. They are Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra3, Meghalaya, Rajasthan, Sikkim and Uttar Pradesh.

For the year 2009-2010 the Central Government had fixed a target of total 30 lakh scholarships under these three schemes, of which 22 lakh were for pre-matric students while 7 lakh for post-matric students. Under merit-cum-means scheme 12230 scholarships are to be distributed.

Link:

http://minorityaffairs.gov.in/newsite/schemes/schemes.asp