Ruckus in Upper House over dalit scholarship issue

Patna: The BJP members on Monday created ruckus in the Upper House during zero hour over non-payment of scholarship amount to dalit students studying in different technical institutes across the country, forcing chairman Awadhesh N Singh to adjourn the House till lunch break.

As soon as the House assembled for day's scheduled business, BJP member Lal Babu Prasad, while moving the adjournment motion on non-payment of scholarship amount to dalit students, urged the chairman to conduct a special debate on the issue as it has jeopardised the future of thousands of dalit students. He said the dalit students have not been getting scholarship for the last three years and the government has instead deposited huge amount in some of the fake technical institutes. Prasad did not rule out the possibility of a multi-crore scam in the entire episode.

Parliamentary affairs minister Shrawan Kumar assured Prasad that the dalit students would get justice. However, soon after the question hour, the BJP members started raising anti-government slogans and trooped inside the well of the House. Displaying anti-government placards, several BJP members, including Lal Babu Prasad, Suraj Nandan Prasad Kushwaha, Sachchidanand Rai, Rajnish Kumar and Sanjay Mayukh continued slogan shouting for few minutes. As a result, the chairman had to adjourn the House till the lunch break.

Later, talking to reporters, leader of the opposition in the legislative council Sushil Kumar Modi said students studying in states like Rajasthan, Odisha were removed from their respective institutions as the state government failed to deposit their scholarship amount.

"The government has instead deposited over Rs 1 crore in some of the fake institutes in Aligarh and Dehradun. A large number of such fake institutes are running in different states in the name of providing technical education to dalit students," he said, adding that the party has demanded a high level inquiry into it.

He said scholarship amount with arrear should be provided to the dalit students so that their career is not jeopardised. Modi said the government normally gives scholarship amount of Rs 60,000-Rs 70000 per year for a period of four years to dalit students.