23 June,2011 06:52 AM IST | | Alifiya Khan
After repeated reminders and year-long delay, Pune University submits list of deserving students for 2009-10
The University of Pune (UoP) has finally swung into action. The varsity sent a revised proposal to the social welfare department to ensure its backward class students got their pending scholarships for the year 2009-2010.u00a0 Fifteen days ago, MiD DAY had reported about how officials at the social welfare department were complaining that despite having about over 2,000 students belonging to backward class, the UoP had not submitted the proposal for fee scholarships, which the students are entitled to.
Forgetful varsity: The June 6 MiD DAY report that highlighted the
plight of 2,000 backward class students whose fee details had not been
forwarded to the Social Welfare Department
"We have received the proposal for 2009-2010, and we will start the process soon. We are yet to get the budgetary sanction for 2010-2011 and that's why the fee reimbursement might take time. But the reminders have worked and the ball is rolling now," said Bharat Shinde, district social welfare officer.
Earlier, Shinde told MiD DAY that delegations of backward class students from the UoP visited himu00a0-- besides organisations and parentsu00a0-- demanding to know why the fees of students had not been transferred for almost a year. Students belonging to various backward classes, such as scheduled caste, scheduled tribe, nomadic tribe and other backward classes, among others, are entitled to free education and the payment of their fees is done by the state government through the social welfare department, said Shinde.
Shinde had said he was unable to do anything, as the process required the college or university where the student is registered to send a list of students along with the fees and bank account details, and the money is then directly deposited in a student's account. Shinde had said despite several reminders, the UoP had not sent the application for scholarships and details of students.
MiD DAY had published a story on June 6, highlighting the plight of the students who were awaiting their scholarships for 2010 even as the next academic year was slated to begin. Finally on Monday, the UoP sent the revised proposal as well other details like bank accounts numbers, among others. The affected students from UoP belong to various streams and courses such as engineering, medicine, law, PhD, master's programmes, among others.
