By TCN Special Correspondent,
Lucknow: Other members of her community may be concerned over Ayodhya issue but Kulsoom Naz, an engineering student is more worried about her fees. Like her, more than 1700 Muslim community students in Lucknow are awaiting state government’s magnanimity to reimburse their fees.
The saga started in 2009 when state government issued an order stating fees of Muslim students who have taken admission in various engineering and medical colleges for session 2009-10 will be reimbursed. The facility was extended only to students whose parents had an annual income up to Rs one lakh. The scheme was aimed at easing their burden so that the students from the Muslim community could pursue higher education and are in the mainstream.
[TCN photo]
The District Minority Welfare Officer (DMWO) was entrusted with the task for collecting the applications and preparing a final list of beneficiaries after due verification. In Lucknow, 2000 students from the Muslim community who deposited their forms were found to be eligible for the fee reimbursement scheme.
“I was relieved after my name was in the list and the officials had assured me that the fee which my parents had deposited with the institute will be reimbursed. However, it is more than a year now and there is no sign of fee reimbursement,” said Kulsoom who is studying at a private engineering college in Lucknow. Several such students who were found eligible have taken admission through CPMT-2009 in MBBS course at CSM Medical University (CSMMU) and numerous engineering colleges in the state capital.
DMWO Vijay Pratap Yadav, who is responsible for the implementation of the scheme, admits that the benefit has been delayed by nearly one year. He informed that more than 2000 candidates were found eligible for the scheme in Lucknow. “We could provide the benefit in form of fee reimbursement only to 300 candidates. Still another 1788 students are in the list who are waiting for their turn for more than one year,” said Yadav. Regarding the remedy, Yadav cited his helplessness over the whole issue. He claimed that despite his repeated reminder to the higher officials funds have not been released. “We need another eight crore rupees for disbursing among all the students. Leave aside funds, we have not received any intimation about our reminders,” said Yadav.