All Nagaland College Students’ Union (ANCSU) on Thursday set a 10-day deadline for the State government to release second installment of scholarship, failing which the organization threatened of taking its own course of action, for which the government would be solely responsible.
ANCSU also submitted a letter to President Ram Nath Kovind, who is in the State Capital, through Chief Secretary and sought his immediate intervention to ensure justice to the students.
Addressing media persons later at its office, ANCSU president Katho P. Awomi expressed displeasure over the silence of chief minister, T.R. Zeliang and his cabinet colleagues and ignoring the interests of students. Awomi urged the CM to intervene and resolve the matter by releasing the remaining amount by December 10, failing which ANCSU would take its own course of action, he warned.
The student leader also asked the State government to streamline the Centre’s Post Matric Scholarship and set a target date for its release so that students also knew when to expect their scholarship amounts.
He said the Central ministry had sanctioned the first instalment of Rs 13,44,00,000 on December 28, 2016 against the required projected amount of Rs 50,69,21,139 for 44,048,084 students in the State.
The ANCSU president said he wrote a letter to Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs on August 23 stating that the students’ body would not accept partial payment even as the Department of Higher Education had also written to the ministry on June 8, August 1 and September 19 to sanction the second instalment.
He regretted that during the course of “appeal” by the department and State government to the Central ministry to release the remaining amount some unknown organization had alleged mismanagement in the Department of Higher Education, which made the Centre suspicious and reluctant to release the remaining amount and instead demanded utilization certificate (UC) from it.
Clarifying that ANCSU was not defending the Department of Higher Education, Awomi added that money was not with the department either. He said such allegations would only break the trust and Naga students would ultimately suffer.
He informed the media that the first instalment was disbursed on October 6 and on November 8 the department had submitted UC to the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs.
Awomi regretted that the Central government did not even acknowledge the earlier inquiry committee report that trashed the allegation of mismanagement, even as he demanded that the ongoing SIT investigation should not delay release of the remaining amount any longer.
ANCSU vice president Benjong Longchar, who too briefed the media, said the first instalment of Rs 3,388 was disbursed to the students. However, since the scholarship amount was enhanced, the students would receive the full amount in the second instalment.
Longchar said since the scholarship forms were submitted online, around 1,000 students had committed errors, for which cheques issued to them by the department bounced.
He also urged the students who had not received the first instalment due to such anomaly to approach ANCSU office or the Department of Higher Education.
ANCSU leaders also appealed the SIT to investigate the matter in all seriousness and bring the erring officials, if any, to book. They also demanded that the names of such erring officials be mentioned in the SIT report.
ANCSU leaders further reiterated its appeal to various organizations not to overlook the facts as this could only complicate the matter even more while the students would be the losers.
ENCSU to resume protest
Eastern Nagaland College Students’ Union (ENCSU) Thursday walked out of the Higher & Technical Education, as directed by the chief minister. A press release signed by ENCSU president, M.Longre Chang and general secretary, Wangnei C.Jessuhu, said that the department was not able to meet the demands of the ENCSU “and it has only come to light about the manipulation in the system.”
ENCSU said that they were not in a position to accept the presentation as it was a repetition of the same old “lame excuses that has been published time and”.
ENCSU expressed amazement at, what they termed as, the department only trying to clarify on the cabinet’s admission of misuse of scholarship funds and the setting up of the SIT.
In this regard, ENCSU said it was compelled to resume its temporarily suspended protest and that the poster campaign will resume from December 1.