Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, 12 May: After a month-long deadlock, the state government on Wednesday released the stipend and scholarship for the college and university students.
The government has also released book grants for the academic session of 2020-21. The stipend has been released for 11 months with a total amount of Rs 2685.34 lakhs.
Chief Minister Pema Khandu’s government faced considerable pressure and a barrage of criticism from the student’s community for the delay in releasing stipends and scholarships.
Education Minister Taba Tedir was trolled widely on social media over his remarks on stipend where he had said that “stipend won’t be given to the students.”
On Wednesday, Chief Minister Pema Khandu tweeted, “For stipend and scholarship for our students, I have instructed: Stipend for college and university students will be disbursed immediately. Further instructed the department to release the post-metric scholarship of Tribal Ministry proportionately to all eligible students as per fund released by ministry so far, including eligible state share.”
He also instructed the department to release stipend of DIET students as per norms.
Sources in the Education department informed that stipend has been released for 16,374 students of both colleges and universities.
“The government’s decision to release students’ stipend and scholarship is welcoming. However, it is to be noted that such dilly-dallying has been plaguing our government every year for a very long time now. Students have to protest and come to the streets every time to claim their basic rights,” said Prem Taba, a research scholar.
“To make education inclusive, stipend and scholarship have to be disbursed on time. A serious political and administrative will is needed to find a permanent solution to this. The hue and cry related to stipend/scholarship delay every year has to stop,” Taba added.
Meanwhile, the All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union (AAPSU) has welcomed the move of releasing students’ stipend and book grants for the academic session 2020-21.
In a statement, AAPSU GS Tobom Dai said, “The AAPSU welcomes the move for release of student stipend and book grants for the academic session 2020-21 and is hopeful that the grant will go a long way in supplementing and giving respite to the needs of the student community during this time of pandemic.”
Dai further said that the state government and the education department in particular need to be sensitive towards the student community rather than creating confusion as seen in the recent past.
