Transferring officers not enough, clear scholarships immediately: BJP

JAIPUR: A day after the government transferred several IAS officers, the BJP demanded that the pending scholarships to SC/ST students be cleared immediately and just transferring officers from the department is not enough.
The matter was raised by state BJP vice-president and MP from Bikaner, Arjun Meghwal on Wednesday while talking about rise in atrocities against SC/ST communities under the Congress regime."Officers of the department, on our complaint, were transferred on Tuesday. However, that is not enough,'' said Meghwal, addressing a media persons at state party headquarters.
Scholarship applications of over 1 lakh students are pending, he said. "It was on our complaint that a departmental inquiry was conducted, which revealed that the drafts for the scholarship amounts were ready for 8,000 students. At least those should be handed over to the beneficiaries immediately,'' he said.
Meghwal related the irregularities in awarding the scholarships to SC/ST atrocities. "In 2010-11, atrocities against SCs went up to 15.4% from 15.2% and the figure is rising. As compared to that it is 3.2% in Gujarat. In terms of atrocities against STs, Rajasthan recorded 22.4% while Gujarat recorded 2.7%,'' said Meghwal, adding that the figures were a reflection of the poor governance of the Congress government.
Meghwal said that the 'Suraaj Sankalp Yatra' is being called so because the BJP is committed towards good governance. "The governance is nothing but poor. During our tenure, power connection for tube wells in fields was cleared in two-and-a-half years while now it takes 5 years. Similarly, while the Congress is patting its back over a loan for Rs 9,000 crore for financial restructuring of the state discoms, only Rs 2,250 crore has been received. For this, for the first time in the history of the state, a ban on power connections of wells in the fields of SC/ST farmers was placed,'' he said.
The MP also blamed the Congress for the delay in setting up Barmer refinery. Meghwal claimed that to a query raised by him in the Lok Sabha in 2010, he was informed that the refinery was not technically viable in Barmer. "We strongly objected to the idea that it should be set up elsewhere. Chief minister Ashok Gehlot's claim that the BJP had not shown interest is baseless. The Congress has been in power for four-and-a-half years and the yet, the refinery has been announced only now,'' he said.