Bengali migrant students denied SC scholarships

Summary: The students, who hail from migrant refugee families, claimed they did not get their scholarships because their manually issued caste certificates were not accepted. "While Sharma could not say how many Namoshudra caste Bengali students were in the district, local community leaders put the figure at 4,500. He blamed the revenue administration of Pilibhit district for not having the necessary equipment for issuing the caste certificates on requisite format. Pilibhit: Hundreds of Bengali students belonging to Namoshudra caste have been deprived of their Scheduled Caste scholarship allegedly due to the negligence on the part of the district administration as well as the state directorate of social welfare. "As the entire network of awarding the scholarship is governed by the state directorate, the district office cannot extend any succour to the affected students.

Pilibhit: Hundreds of Bengali students belonging to Namoshudra caste have been deprived of their Scheduled Caste scholarship allegedly due to the negligence on the part of the district administration as well as the state directorate of social welfare. The students, who hail from migrant refugee families, claimed they did not get their scholarships because their manually issued caste certificates were not accepted. Now, the system of awarding scholarships to SCs is based on online certificates.According to these students, they have been facing the problem since the previous academic year but the administration has done precious little to find a solution to the problem.A group of Bengali students of Upadhi Post Graduate Degree College here — Urmila Mandal, Deep Shikha Adhikari, Jamuna Vyapari, all BA second year students, Ranjila Rai, a student of MA part two, and Madhavi Sarkar, a BA first- year student — met with the district social welfare officer at Vikas Bhavan regarding th eir scholarship since the academic year 2014-15.They said that they had been issued SC certificates by Pilibhit tehsil but these were manually prepared.

As the scholarship awarding system had been made online from 2014-15, their manual caste certificates were rejected by the upgraded system.They added that Bengali students in neighbouring Kheri district were being provided with computerized SC certificates and even produced a couple of copies of computerized certificates issued there.The Namoshudra caste of Bengali refugees had migrated from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) after the Indo-Pak war of 1971. Although, this caste is not listed in the SC category in UP, their school-going children were awarded with the Scheduled Caste scholarship under special arrangements by the state government.When asked about the Bengali students' scholarship, district social welfare officer Rajesh Sharma said issuance of the caste certificates was the sole responsibility of the revenue departmen t. "As the entire network of awarding the scholarship is governed by the state directorate, the district office cannot extend any succour to the affected students."While Sharma could not say how many Namoshudra caste Bengali students were in the district, local community leaders put the figure at 4,500.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bareilly/Bengali-migrant-students-denied-SC-scholarships/articleshow/53832454.cms

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Source: Bengali migrant students denied SC scholarships