The future of millions of Dalit students is in jeopardytoday due to the failures of the Punjab government. Due to non-receipt of SCscholarship funds by the government to private colleges; it was highlyreprehensible for the colleges to withhold the degrees of the students who hadworked hard day and night, said, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab in-charge and MLAfrom Delhi, Jarnail Singh and Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the PunjabLegislative Assembly Harpal Singh Cheema during a press conference here onTuesday.
Cheema said that he had also written a letter to thePunjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh seeking action against thecolleges which were withholding degrees.
He said that the future of millions of Dalit students inPunjab is staring at a bleak future due to the rift between the Centre andPunjab government.
Cheema said that a large number of Dalit students inPunjab have completed their degrees from private colleges under the governmentscholarships and it was government's colossal failure to tackle the issue ofpending scholarship dues.
"Due to non-payment of scholarship funds to thecolleges by the Punjab government; the former have now stopped the degrees ofthose students. With this the future of about seven lakh students of Punjab isin jeopardy. Students who have to continue their studies or apply for a job arenow deprived of it," he added.
The AAP leaders said that the Union government hadrefused to send the next installment of scholarship funds due to a scam of Rs63 crore by Punjab Cabinet Minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot.
"Due to this, the future of these Dalit students nowlooks bleak. AAP and other Dalit organisations are continuously demandingaction against Minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot but so far no action has beentaken in this regard”, they said.
The leaders further demanded that the scam beinvestigated by the CBI under the Punjab and Haryana High Court, and the namesof those who had tampered with the future of SC students be made public andappropriate punishment be meted out to them.
The leaders warned the Punjab government that if theDalit students do not get their withheld degrees within a week and action notbeing taken against the guilty colleges, the Aam Aadmi Party would wage afierce struggle against the Punjab government.