There seems to be no end to the miseries of students enrolled under Prime Minister’s Special Scholarship Scheme (PMSSS) as complaints continue to pour in against AICTE for delaying the disbursement of scholarship grants to the students.
The students enrolled under various courses in different colleges on Monday complained that AICTE has not released their scholarship grants to the colleges, leaving them high and dry.
The students enrolled in the different colleges outside J&K said the delay in release of scholarship grants has put them to unnecessary trouble.
“At the time of our admissions, we were told that our scholarship will be released in one month but has not been released so far,” an aggrieved student told Greater Kashmir.
This newspaper received distressed emails from aggrieved students who complained that their scholarship grants were delayed for unknown reasons.
The AICTE has delayed the release of scholarship grants at a time when the J&K administration is encouraging the students to avail benefits of the much hyped PMSSS to pursue various undergraduate and professional courses in outside J&K colleges.
Over the past many years, the J&K government has involved Principals of higher secondary schools to create awareness about the scheme among students in class 11th and 12th. However, the students continue to suffer for one or the other reason.
“If we go by the ground situation, the students still face inconveniences due to delayed release of their scholarship grants,” another student said.
The students said they were supposed to receive Rs 30000 which has been delayed for the past five months and scholarship amount has not been credited to their account.
“We are far away from our homes and our expenses are very huge. It is very difficult to manage the daily expenditures. We appeal the concerned authorities to intervene into the matter and resolve our grievance,” the student said.
The Nodal Officer of PMSSS at Amar Singh College, Prof Maqsood Ahmad when contacted said the students should compile a list, which will be forwarded to the concerned authorities at AICTE.
“There are two types of scholarship grants; one is college fee which is directly credited into the bank accounts of the colleges. The students are also entitled for maintenance grants which are provided to the students to manage their daily expenditures while attending physical classes in schools and hostel charges as well,” he said.
He said the maintenance grants are not provided to students as AICTE claims that colleges are not holding physical classes and students do not put up in hostels as well.
“But I will take up the matter with director AICTE and try to resolve the grievance of the students,” he said.