Nitish denied scholarship to SC/ST students: Sushil Kumar Modi

Patna: Former deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi (SuMo) on Tuesday charged CM Nitish Kumar and his foe-turned-friend and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad with being anti-Dalit and Mahadalit. He alleged that the duo deprived the SC/ST students of post-matriculation scholarship last year.

In a statement issued here on Tuesday, Modi said, “Thousands of SC/ST students studying engineering, medical or other technical courses in Bihar or outside are compelled to leave the courses midway as the government failed to disburse scholarship.”

Modi said the state government invited application for granting scholarships almost four months late, in November 2014. The usual time was July, 2014. “The state government received about 5 lakh applications online and offline but did not grant scholarship to a single student and surrendered the allocated Rs 200 crore for financial year 2014-15,” the BJP leader said.

Even in 2013-14, many students were denied scholarship and a few who received it got very little money, Modi alleged. “Now the state government is harassing the students and asking them to resubmit their scholarship applications after getting them attested from their respective institutions despite the fact that the financial year is over and the fund has already been surrendered,” Modi said.

The leader of opposition in legislative council said the anti-Dalit face of the RJD-Congress supported Nitish government is exposed. The SC/ST students were denied their post-matriculation scholarship after Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief Ram Vilas Paswan and Hindustani Awam Morcha (S) leader Jitan Ram Manjhi came over to the NDA camp, he alleged. “The state government wants to push these students into darkness by stopping their scholarships and ultimately their studies,” Modi said.

Paswan also attacked Nitish over the Nalanda incident in which a school director was lynched by a mob. “It happened in the CM’s home district and in the presence of policemen is proof enough that there is no rule of law in Bihar,” Paswan said.

Also taking a dig at Nitish’s huge posters on ‘Bihar@2025 ‘ Badh Chala Bihar’, Paswan told the media at the Patna airport, “His (Nitish) alliance has so many big names like Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Lalu Prasad and Sharad Yadav, but only Nitish’s photograph is displayed on the hoardings. What is he trying to convey and to whom?”

Modi and Paswan also shared the dais at an NDA workers meeting in Vaishali on Tuesday.

Source: The Times of India