BPL kids likely to miss financial aid

HYDERABAD: More than 1,500 children of daily wage labourers, petty hawkers, small-scale kirana shop owners in the city, falling under the Below Poverty Line category are likely to miss financial aid this year.

The National Scholarship Portal under the supervision of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEIT) has not been functioning since August 1, the date on which call for merit-cum-means based scholarships was announced. 

SQ Masood who runs a training and resource centre that links minorities — Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Parsi and Jain from all over the city informed that this problem has been existing since the day of announcement. “Every year we file close to 700 applications. This year, however, we haven’t been able to send any because of a technical problem. It is mandatory to add the mandal and the taluka of the applicant. A dropdown menu appears usually that lets you select, that has not been functioning since day one,” said Masood.  

Another organisation, Association of Socio Economic Empowerment of the Marginalised (ASEEM) too has been facing the same problem.

“We filed around 2,500 applications last year and we have around 800 plus applications waiting to be uploaded. We get applications on a daily basis. The last day to file online applications is September 30,” said Ali Asghar, founder member of the ASEEM. 

Their repeated attempts to reach the authorities have been unsuccessful. “A few students have filed complaints in the website’s complaint box and the central government’s grievance portal but have not received any response till now.”

“We have also sent

repeated representations to state and central departments but to no avail,” said Asghar.

Masood wrote to Syed Omer Jaleel, Secretary, Minorities Welfare and also to the MEIT. “We were told that the minister is currently busy touring the country, seeing off Haj pilgrims and will look into the matter soon,” said Masood. However, when contacted, Jaleel informed that they are aware of the problem and measures are being taken to resolve it.