J&K Students Face Hardship as Maintenance Dues Under Scholarship Scheme Unpaid Since June

Jammu: Students from Jammu and Kashmir, enrolled under the Prime Minister Special Scholarship Scheme (PMSS), have alleged that they are facing difficulties due to non-payment of maintenance fees under the program since June this year.

The students said that they even contacted the department of All India Council of Techinical Education (AICTE) but, to no avail.

"We were told that the maintenance fees won't be released till we attend the college physically. They said that studying at home doesn't incur any maintenance fees," Prashant Kumar, a student from Jammu’s RS Pura told NewsClick.

Kumar is a final year student of civil engineering department from TPGIT, Vellore. He said that his batch has been asked to attend college from next month, but he has no money to book his flight.

"I rely on the scholarship money as I belong to a lower middle class family. With the notification asking final year students to attend college, I don’t know how I will travel and pay my bills," he added.

The students also lament that the non-disbursal of maintenance fees has made it difficult for them to pursue studies and has put their parents under financial pressure. Notably, JKPMSS was launched in 2011 to grant scholarship to students from the region who are essentially from economically weaker sections to enable them to pursue higher education across the country.

After the COVID-19 lockdown was announced earlier in March, the education institutions were shut down and amid increasing fear and uncertainties about the pandemic, students studying outside rushed home. However, the maintenance fee payable under the scheme remains pending, while the college fees have been processed by the JKPMSS Department.

The scholarship is given on the basis of need and merit to the students having family income of less than Rs 8 lakh per year. Every year, students from lower economic background depend entirely on the scholarship for their higher studies and if denied the full scholarship, they will be forced to drop-out from the colleges.

Another student from South Kashmir’s Anantnag, Manzoor, said that those students who lived outside campus in rented spaces are suffering even worse as they still have to pay the room rent. 

"Although I am in Kashmir but I am still paying for the room I rented outside the campus in Vellore. My parents are not capable of taking care of my finances. Doesn’t that count as maintenance charge?," he said.

Also read: 2G in the Times of 4G: Unending Lockdowns Take Toll on Kashmiri Students

Aftab Matloob, student of Parul Institute of Pharmacy in Gujarat, who hails from North Kashmir’s Baramulla said that he has not even received college fees following which his semester result has been withheld by the college administration. 

"The college fees of the entire academic year 2020-21 is pending. The authorities have withheld my results of previous semester because of pending fees. The college authorities have also warned me by asking me to pay the fee, otherwise they won't allow me to sit for the coming internals."

The Students’ Federation of India has condemned the authorities for not releasing full scholarship of the odd semesters to the students. The office bearers, according to a statement from SFI, have cited it as the Ministry's order and claimed that there was no need for maintenance charges as the students were not present in the colleges physically and they were studying from home which, according to them, should incur no maintenance charges.

“The reason given for freezing of maintenance charges is highly pathetic and illogical,” the SFI statement said.

The students in Jammu and Kashmir are attending online classes even as high-speed 4G internet remains a distant dream, which has made it difficult for them to attend the online classes conveniently.

Citing the various extra costs that a student has to cope with for attending online classes, the statement added, “Online education, downloading study materials, research and project preparation, etc., is highly difficult with 2G internet in place. The students have to incur additional charges to buy extra data packs for the extended online classes and for the installation of broadband services and its monthly fee, if required. Procurement of a feasible device for online education (phone/laptop) to cope up with online classes and also with projects and practicals in some courses is essential too.”