The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Walkout over scholarship arrears

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 26, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Walkout over scholarship arrears

HYDERABAD: Members of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) staged a walkout in the Legislative Council protesting against lack of a firm assurance by the Government on payment of scholarship arrears to Backward Classes students.

Backward Classes Welfare Minister M. Mukesh Goud criticised the TDP members, saying the walkout was unjustified as the budget for BC scholarship was increased to Rs. 204 crore this year, while it was Rs. 80 crore during 2003-04.

Earlier, replying to the main question by Bommidi Narayan Rao (TDP) and others, he said in 2006-07 an amount Rs. 123 crore was released to cover all 247,001 renewals and 273, 453 fresh applications, leaving a balance of 57,856 fresh ones.

He said there was no practice of sanctioning of arrears. For 2007-08, it was decided to sanction post-matric scholarships to all eligible BC students.

Puvvada Nageswara Rao (CPI) wanted arrears to be paid immediately while P. Raghunath Reddy (TDP) said arrears of Rs. 6.25 lakh were pending.

The Minister informed the House that there was no proposal to delete any community from the BC list.

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Andhra Pradesh