VIJAYAWADA: Congress Working Committee (CWC) special invitee and former union minister Chinta Mohan demanded the State government to pay scholarships, full mess bills, pocket money, fees reimbursement to SC, ST, OBC and minorities by November 1. Speaking to mediapersons in Vijayawada on Friday, he lambasted the government for ‘diverting’ the funds and questioned the right of the government in diverting the constitutionally guaranteed funds meant for SCs and other categories.
“I myself was a scholarship student from class 6 and I was the one who had petitioned Indira Gandhi to increase the scholarship amount as a 19-year-old medical student. Today, I am grieved to see that 80 lakh students belonging to SC, ST, BC and minority are bereft of scholarships, which is their right,” he said. “When the Central Government has released 75 per cent of its share of the scholarship amount, why the State is unwilling to release its 25 per cent share,” Chinta Mohan asked and criticised the government for ‘diverting’ the scholarship amount for other purposes for the past two years.
Chinta Mohan claimed that it was SCs from Vijayawada, who stood behind Mahatma Gandhi during his protests in South Africa and through them he came to know the depravity faced by SCs.The former minister also found fault with the State government for diluting SC Finance Corporation and sought to know real motives behind the decision.