By TCN News,
Lucknow: In Uttar Pradesh, Muslim students face an uphill task in opening bank accounts for claiming their scholarships. As per the provisions, the scholarships of students are directly sent to their bank accounts.
The latest incident is from Kannauj which is the parliamentary constituency of Dimple Yadav, wife of Chief Minister (CM) Akhilesh Yadav. This constituency has been represented thrice by Akhilesh and is a stronghold of Samajwadi Party (SP).
In Kannauj, students of Madarsa Darul Uloom Gausia situated at Chibramau reached Aryavrat Gramin Bank for opening their bank accounts. However, bank officials turned them down and refused to open their account, as they did not fulfill ‘adequate’ documents. A total of eighty students were denied an account, after which they met the DM of Kannauj, Dr Adarsh Singh and narrated their problems.
Despite Muslims voting en masse for the SP in assembly elections after which it was voted to power, the Muslim students are still being denied their rights. Bank authorities appear reluctant to open the account of Muslim students, eventually depriving them of their scholarships. The situation is prevalent across the state.
DM Dr Adarsh Singh has, however, taken up the issue seriously and asked the officials to get in touch with the bank officials to investigate the matter.
According to bank officials, students denied bank accounts are outstation candidates from Jharkhand, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh and hence they could not open their account, as they could not furnish permanent residence proof. Students have expressed their inability to provide the permanent address proof within stipulated time which may result in lapse of their scholarships.
However, the issue was resolved finally with the intervention of the DM, who directed the bank officials to open their bank accounts on the basis of their identity card and school’s verification.
Another branch of same bank Aryavrat Gramin Bank situated in Jalalpur Panwara in Kannauj went a step ahead, when students arrived for opening their accounts, by locking the the main gate. Nearly 400 students of junior and primary schools were thus standing outside
along with their parents. Surprisingly all these students were from government schools.
Bank officials refused to pay heed to even the Principal of the school, Mehboob Ahmed.
Later, students marched to Chief Development Officer (CDO) M P Singh’s office and
narrated him their problem. It was only after his intervention that the bank officials agreed to open the account.
These are just two examples of discriminations to Muslim students in the VIP constituency of Kannauj, nursed by CM Akhilesh Yadav. Even the state government is aware of the high handedness of the bank officials.
State’s Minority Welfare Minister Azam Khan has meanwhile written a letter to the Union Minister for Minority Affairs, Salman Khurshid explaining the deplorable situation and for intervention.