SC/ST/NT students eligible for freeships/scholarships have been threatened of being expelled from their college unless they pay the arrears of the last two semesters and
the fees of future semesters.
College principals say that as the admission process for the next academic year has started, they are being forced to recover the arrears from the students, as the social welfare department has not remitted the fee amounts accruing towards the freeships/scholarships to the colleges.
Students from these reserved categories are eligible for the frees-hip/scholarship scheme introduced by the government in 2008. They have to apply by submitting all requisite documents to the state social welfare department, which then processes the applications and remits the amount of the fees of eligible students directly to the college.
According to a student from KJ Somaiya College, he was denied admission to the second year, even though he cleared the two semesters of the first year, on the grounds that
his first year fees weren’t paid.
“I had submitted all the documents, including my eligibility certificate, at the start of the last academic year. But when I went for admission, I was told that my admission would be cancelled if I didn’t pay the arrears as well as the fees for the next year,” said the student.
While colleges have threatened to cancel the admissions if fees aren’t paid, they too are in a quandary, as cancelling the admission would mean forfeiting the unpaid
fees.
Dr Vijay Joshi, principal, KJ Somaiya College, said, “The students are suffering as they did not fill up the online application. Now as the window for filling up the application has closed, they will have to pay the arrears.” Incidentally, the deadline for submitting the online application was extended thrice, but the students still did not submit forms.
Pramod Jadhav, officer, social welfare department, said he had received
some complaints from colleges. “The students hadn’t completed the online application process, and so their freeships and scholarships weren’t approved. We shall request the government to extend the deadline further,” he said.