AMSU volunteers marched to the office holding placards like ‘Disburse scholarship amount immediately’, ‘Don’t snatch away right of students’, Purpose of scholarship won’t be served if not released on time’, etc
TFM Report
All Manipur Students’ Union (AMSU) volunteers on Friday stormed into the MOBC office at North AOC. The students’ body has been protesting against the non-release of pre-matric, post-matric scholarship for students belonging to Other Backward Classes (OBC), Schedule Caste (SC), Schedule Tribe (ST) and Economic Weaker Section (EWS). The scholarship is sponsored by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India.
AMSU volunteers marched to the office holding placards like ‘Disburse scholarship amount immediately’, ‘Don’t snatch away the rights of students’, ‘Purpose of scholarship won’t be served if not released on time’, etc. AMSU representatives demanded an audience with the MOBC Director and the Additional Director. However, as the MOBC Director and the Additional Director were not present in the office, a delegation of AMSU representatives met other authorities of MOBC and presented their demands.
After the meeting, All Manipur Students’ Union (AMSU) secretary general Bikramjit Thongam said scholarship for OBC, SC, ST and EWS students under MOBC department is not released yet. The students’ body has approached MOBC department and Manipur government for immediate disbursement of scholarship amount. However, all their demands fell on deaf ears, forcing them to storm into the office, he added.
In the absence of the director and additional director, the AMSU delegation met other authorities of the MOBC. They were told that the fund for payment of the scholarship has not been released from the Finance section. The authority also assured to disburse the previous years’ pending scholarship amounts and this year’s amount by November 15 after consulting with the director and additional director, he said.
Bikramjit Thongam further said students had faced several hardships due to covid-19 pandemics. Scholarship would have brought some succour to students if it is released timely. To their dismay, the marginalized students are forced to drop out of college or school in a way by the MOBC department. He urged the authority to release the scholarship as early as possible.