Tribal students at loss govt fails to raise stipend

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Nagpur: The tribal students are in a fix as their stipend has not been increased till now which was promised after the students agitated to stop the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme. The students had appealed to the Tribal Development Minister Vishnu Sawra to stop the Direct Benefit Transfer scheme and instead funds be given for the students staying in the hostel. They had demanded stop the DBT as they were facing a lot of problems. Despite their request the DBT scheme was not stopped but instead the government had said that it would increase their yearly stipend. Till the date the stipend has neither been increased nor has the DBT scheme been stopped.

The students were earlier give educational aids like stationery, books, notebooks etc. before the DBT scheme was implemented but now they are given money. And as per the government GR the 60 per cent of the funds should be deposited in hostel students’ account within seven days after their admission. Months pass off but the funds are not deposited in their accounts. BA and other faculty students are given Rs 4500 while the engineering and medical students are given Rs 6000 per year. Earlier the administration used to give all the essential things. The students have now demanded that the earlier scheme be implemented again and under this the BA and BCom students be given minimum Rs 10,000 per year as stipend. The medical and engineering students should be given more than 10,000 per year as stipend.

Mukesh Narote, Nagpur President of Tribal Students Association, Vidarbha said that the Social Welfare Commissioner had gone to Pune for the meeting but the outcome appears to be zero as till now the stipend has not been raised.