Punjab on Thursday urged the Social Justice and Empowerment MinisterThaawarchand Gehlot for them to provide funds of ₹1286 crore under the scheme of providing scholarships to Scheduled Castes students.
Punjab Minister for Social Justice, Empowerment and Minorities Sadhu Singh Dharamsot who met Gehlot, requested the authorities to provide funds as soon as possible because of the students in the meantime have been facing a lot of problems in securing admissions in educational institutions due to delay.
During their meeting, he mentioned that there has already been a delay in releasing funds for Punjab, ₹719 crores for 2016-17 and ₹567 crore for 2017-18.
“I have urged Gehlot for releasing these funds as early as possible so that problems of the students can be solved on priority. We have already provided utility certificates (UCs) of Rs 327 crore funds which were earlier released by the Centre to Punjab,” said Dharamsot.
After the meeting, he informed that Gehlot has assured release of funds for Punjab by February.
Criticizing Union State Minister for Social Justice Vijay Sampla for latter’s statements that the state government has not provided UCs against earlier used funds yet, Punjab Cabinet Minister said that as the state government has already provided the UCs against usage of Rs. 327 crore, Vijay Sampla should check facts with his own office before making such baseless statements. He said that Mr. Sampla should not play politics over such a sensitive issue keeping in mind the concern of a large number of SC students of the state.