By Mohammed Siddique, TwoCircles.net,
Hyderabad : In Andhra Pradesh, which is the only state in the country to have a separate department of minority welfare with a budget of Rs 177 crore for this year, the government has decided to extend financial assistance to the needy Muslim students towards fee as well as scholarships on par with the scheduled castes.
Though the government had earmarked an amount of Rs 115 crore towards the scholarship and fee payment to the Muslim students, the formal orders have still not been issued. But after an official review meeting the Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhkara Reddy directed the finance department to make the allocated money immediately available for the implementation of the scheme.
Muslim students studying in 27 different professional courses will benefit from this scheme. “These students will not have to run from pillar to post and the government will make the payment directly to the colleges concerned. From now onwards there is no need for the needy and deserving students to worry about their education due to financial constraints”, said Mohammed Ali Shabbir, the minority welfare minister. This will be the first academic year during which the students will benefit form this unique scheme.
The state government has kept Rs 80 crore for the scholarships and Rs 35 crore towards the payment of fee. The scheme is meant for the economically weak Muslim students, whose family’s annual income is less than Rs 2.40 lakhs.
AP is the first state in the country to implement a scheme of fee payment for Muslim students at par with the SC students.
While the state government at the policy and decision making level has shown earnestness and sincerity in taking decisions to uplift Muslims educationally, the same level of urgency and interest was lacking at the implementation level leading to the delay in release of scholarships. For instance the scholarship amounts of the students were released when the academic year had ended and schools were closed for annual vacation. “When we received the cheques of scholarships, no headmaster of any school was available to collect and disburse the amount. Making the matters worse, the cheques had a validity of only one month”, a district level officer of minority welfare department said.
Agreeing that there were such lapses, Mohmmed Ali Shabbir said that the system will be streamlined from this year.
Meanwhile the state government was also exploring ways to see that Muslim students benefit from 4% reservations in the admissions in to professional colleges from the new academic year too. The process of admission in to the engineering, medical and other professional colleges was yet to start but the Supreme Court has allowed the state government to take 4% reservations for various Muslim groups during the counseling. However their admission in to the colleges will depend on the final outcome of the case pending in the High Court. A seven judge bench in the High Court is hearing the batch of petitions challenging the legal and constitutional validity of 4% reservations to Muslims.
The act had come in to effect last year benefiting the Muslim students. Under the 4% quota, 3400 Muslim students were admitted in to engineering colleges, 153 students in Medical colleges and 51 in Dental colelges, 1040 in MCA and MBA and 120 in Pharmacy colleges.
“We are consulting the top legal experts to ensure that this year also Muslim students get the benefit of reservations”, Ali Shabbir said.
Link:
http://www.aponline.gov.in/apportal/departments/portallistoforgsbydepts.aspx?i=3