By TCN Staff reporter,
New Delhi: The Ministry of Minority Affairs (MMA) is discussing proposal to raise the quota of Scholarship for Bihar, said Adil Hasan, convener, Surjapuri Vikas Parishad (SVP), a Bihar based voluntary organization, working in the area of Muslim and Dalit welfare.
Mr. Hassan was briefing media persons, after meeting Salman Khurshid, Minority Affairs Minister. The Minister told him that if Bihar performs well, on the front of providing scholarship to the minority students, the scholarship quota for the state will be raised.
Adil Hasan, handing over memorandum to Salman Khurshid, Minister of Minority Affairs
Mr. Adil attracted the Minister’s attention towards thousands of complaints from Muslim students in Bihar, that the banks are not opening Zero Balance Account which is a prerequisite for a Muslim student wishing to apply for scholarships awarded by the MMA.
According to SVP, when its volunteers refer to the instructions from the higher authorities of the ministry of Finance and MMA, local bank officials out rightly deny any directive from the seniors to open zero balance Accounts for the Students.
Mr. Hasan handed over a memorandum to the Minister, in which SVP has highlighted several nationalized banks, including some rural and gramin banks that had turned away the Muslim students.
He requested the Minster to “ensure some alternative to the account opening norms because in the present scenario in spite of all the efforts, for Muslim students, the practical difficulties in opening zero balance accounts remain.”
Mr. Hassan was told that the MMA has already written all State and UT Chief Secretaries to ask the Banks to open the Zero Balance Accounts for the students at the earliest. The Minister reportedly took note of the matter seriously and promised to take action at the earliest.
Mr. Hassan also met UD Tripathy, joint secretary, MMA. Mr. Tripathy talked to Amir Subhani, principal secretary, Minority Welfare department, government of Bihar, and asked him to look into the matter and take immediate action.
Surjapuri Vikas Parishad has been working to ensure that the Scholarship Scheme reaches out a wider public and the needy minority students. It has distributed around 50,000 forms free of cost.
[TCN Photo]