Proceedings stalled over caning of dalit students

Patna: Amid uproarious scenes on Thursday, the Bihar legislative Council was adjourned after the opposition sought a special debate on the police lathicharge on dalit students and curtailment in their scholarships amount.

BJP member Rajnish Kumar moved an adjournment motion and said the scholarships amount to dalit students for post-matriculation studies had been reduced from Rs1.50 lakh to Rs15,000 per annum.

He also said dozens of dalit students sustained serious injuries in the police lathicharge near Gandhi Maidan on Wednesday. The students were protesting against the curtailment in their scholarships amount, he said.

Despite repeated requests by Council Chairman

Awadhesh N Singh

to raise the issue during zero hour, K K Singh, Arjun Sahni, Nawal K Yadav, Sanjay Mayukh, Vinod N Jha, Sachchidanand Rai (all BJP), Nutan Singh (LJP), Sanjiv Shyam Singh (RLSP) among others disrupted the proceedings. The Chairman adjourned the House till lunch break.

Later, leader of opposition in the Council, Sushil Kumar Modi, told the media that thousands of dalit students were now forced to leave their studies in engineering, medical, polytechnic and industrial training institutes for the non-payment of their scholarships amount for the last financial year.

There is also a backlog of 2014-15 financial year, he said.

Quoting official figure, Modi said in the last financial year, 1.11 lakh applications were received out of which only 20,000 students were given the scholarships amount.

"Bihar is facing huge financial crisis due to total prohibition. The state government will have to curtail funds somewhere to meet the losses," Modi said and added that the future of students who are studying in various colleges are uncertain due to the non-payment of their fees by the state government.

Modi also said a committee has already been set up to probe the fake institutes running in various parts of the state.

But till date no arrest has been made in this regard. Before the assembly polls, the government had organized enrolment mela at Miller High School ground in which more than 100 technical institutes had participated, Modi said.

Talking about the launching of students credit card from October 2, Modi said this system is already in force in which bank gives loan to students at 12% interest. Banks will assess the students' result, repayment capacity and the institute's name before disbursing the loan amount.

But poor dalit students would be unable to repay the loan amount, he said.

In protest, the BJP-led NDA has decided to stage demonstration at each district headquarters on Friday and will burn the effigy of CM Nitish Kumar, said party president Mangal Pandey.

"We will take this fight to the streets throughout the state in the larger interest of dalit students. The future course of action would be decided soon," Pandey told reporters.