Commission gets stock reply from government on scholarship for Dalits

Pon Vasanth Arunachalam

MADURAI,AUGUST 14, 2017 00:00 IST

‘Hundreds of students affected because of Adi Dravida department’s lethargy’

For the third time in two years, Adi Dravida Welfare Department in Tamil Nadu has given the National Commission for Scheduled Castes a stock reply that the ‘government was yet to make a decision’ on the issue of Post Matric Scholarship for Scheduled Caste students pursuing higher studies through distance education.

The reply was sent in response to the third petition sent by B. Pandiaraja, a Madurai-based activist to the Commission in July, which the commission subsequently forwarded to the Director of ADW department seeking action. Alleging that the reply indicated an indifferent attitude of the department, he pointed out that it even got the addressee wrong in its latest reply.

“NCSC’s ‘Director’ for Tamil Nadu and Puducherry had sent the letter to the ADW department. However, the reply was addressed to its ‘Assistant Director,’ who had earlier sent a letter to the department regarding the issue. It is possible that the department just took the addressee from its previous reply,” Mr. Pandiaraja said.

He said that he filed the first petition on the issue in September 2015 when he and about 200 students were denied scholarship by Tamil University in Thanjavur, which said they had not received any communication on sanction of funds from ADW department despite multiple follow-ups.

“For my first petition, the ADW department bothered to respond to NCSC only after a reminder. In its reply, it said that it had requested the government to take a decision on the matter,” he said.

Since there was no further response for nearly an year, he wrote another letter to NCSC in August 2016, which the commission promptly forwarded again to the ADW department seeking reply. “This time I attached the Central government guidelines, which clearly said that scholarships should be provided to distance education students as well,” he said.

“By attaching it, I argued that there was no need for government to take any fresh decision since the guidelines were already clear,” he added.

However, the ADW department responded with the same reply that the government was yet to decide on the matter, he said.

“Now, after another year, they still say the decision is pending. Hundreds of students from universities across Tamil Nadu are being denied benefits because of the department’s lethargy,” he alleged.

Acknowledging the inordinate delay shown by ADW department, a senior official from NCSC said the commission would soon decide whether to summon the Director of the department to push for immediate action.