No Writing In The Margins

The Short Shrift

• PM’s Special Scholarship Scheme laun­ched in 2011-12 offered 5,000 annual scholarships (250 medical, 250 engineering and 4,500 general degree courses)

• Scholarships promised ranged from Rs 30,000 per annum for degree courses, Rs 1.25 lakh pa for engineering courses and Rs 3 lakh pa for medical studies

• Hostel fees and incidental expenses were also to be given to all categories of students

• 8,745 students from J&K have availed the scholarships so far

• A large number of students were however taken for a ride by NGOs and colleges which conspired to corner the grants and misled students about the terms and conditions

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While the national media focused on separatists hoisting a ‘Pakistani’ flag in Srinagar, a group of students from Kashmir studying in different parts of  India were slowly making their way home. Some of them complained that they had been ‘rusticated’ because the scholarship amounts promised to their colleges by the government of India hadn’t reached the varsities.

At least two such colleges, in Rohtak (Haryana) and Udaipur (Rajasthan), told Kashmiri newspapers that the students were asked to vacate the hostel because they had not paid for their board and lodging. But the students returning from Rohtak (doing their final year engineering course) point out that they’d been given to understand that hostel charges too were to be borne by the government.

The Prime Minister’s Special Scho­l­arship Scheme (PMSSS) for Kashmiri students was announced  following the troubled 2010 summer in the Valley when thousands, predominantly the youth, came out on the streets to dem­and “freedom from India”. An unnerved government had rushed an all-party parliamentary delegation to Srinagar. The visit of the MPs—only the second of its kind after the insurgency of the ’90s—was followed by several anno­un­cements including the constitution of a group of interlocutors on Kashmir and the PMSSS for Kashmiri youth. Sceptics had then dismissed these announcements as another strategy to buy time. New Delhi perhaps wanted to restore nor­m­alcy and then forget everything till another ‘intifada’ erupted on the streets of Srinagar, they predicted. The fate of the PMSSS, like the interlocutors’ report, appears to have vindicated the sceptics.

“The PMSSS has destroyed our care­ers,” complains Sheikh Tariq, a student at the Shekhawati College of Pharmacy in Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan, and one of the many who availed ‘the PMSSS for higher education outside the state’. The scheme was approved by the Cab­inet Committee on Economic Affairs in August, 2011, and was meant to wean Kashmiri youth away from militancy and separatism. The government had decided to offer 5,000 scholarships each year over five years for J&K students to pursue higher studies outside the state. The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) was asked to implement the PMSSS. 

Rohtak college students from J&K who were asked to vacate their hostels 

Between 2012 (when the scheme was launched) and ’14, scores of private universities reached out to J&K stude­nts to grab the grants, which ranged from Rs 30,000 to Rs 3 lakh per student (see box). Most of these institutions were either new or undeveloped and was not known for offering quality education. In one Haryana college, fake bank accounts and e-mail IDs were opened in the name of 50 Kashmiri students who had enrolled for a BBA course. “The purpose, it now appears, was to grab the scholarship money released in our favour,” say  some of the students. Out of the 75 students studying in three different courses at the institution, 60 are from the Valley. The college facilities apparently are nothing to write home about. “Five to seven students share a single room in the hostel. In fact, many students are lodged in the vacant classrooms of the college because there’s shortage of space in the hostels.”

Last year, 35 Kashmiri students at the  Bangalore Technological Institute (BTI) went on a strike demanding return of their certificates or a written assurance from the college that they wouldn’t have to pay for the course. “This place is a mess. Besides, the college authorities are demanding fees from us, notwithstanding the promise of free education they made at the time of admission,” says Yasir Ahmad Shah, a resident of Kupwara.

“The BTI is located in a remote area of the city. In Srinagar, at the time of admissions, we were shown photos of a five-storey building, but no such structure exists on the ground. There are no labs, no equipment,” says another student, Ibrahim Shah, who left his BSc to pursue a BTech after the principal of BTI came to Srinagar personally to hand over admission letters to the students.

“I thought why waste money when I am being offered a free education? Who wouldn’t have availed such a tempting offer?” asks Shah, a resident of Srinagar. His friend, Tanvir Ahmad, says, “I got here through an NGO. They promised me free quality education in this college. And here I am now cursing myself.”

After the media in Kashmir highlig­h­ted how the students had been duped, the AICTE decided to grant provisional admission to the students through its own counselling. Private universities were kept out. Also, for the academic session 2014-15, the AICTE restricted the number of students to two intakes per college. Later in September 2014, the AICTE in its counselling session allocated colleges to 2,102 students on the basis of the marks they secured in Class 12.

These measures still proved insufficient. Priya Chib, a Jammu resident who had scored 94% in Class XII, was contacted by an NGO which directed her to seek admission at the Azamgarh Dental College and Hospital under the PMSSS.  “Once in Azamgarh, I was told the AICTE would conduct counselling sessions and give provisional admissions. I came back to Srinagar, went for counselling and was allotted Maitreyi College. Once there, however, the authorities refused to honour the AICTE letter, saying they were not aware of any such scheme,” Chib told a Delhi-based newspaper last November.

Meanwhile, many Delhi University colleges have outright refused to admit  PMSSS students, claiming they had no information about the scheme. Some 100-odd students who were asked to join DU colleges say they haven’t received any help despite doing the rounds of the offices of the DU vice-chancellor, Univ­er­sity Grants Commission and the AICTE.

AIADMK MP Gopalakrishnan Chinnaraj raised the issue in Parliament in the winter session, asking HRD minister Smriti Irani why scholarship-winning students from J&K had not been admitted to DU colleges. Her reply—the ministry had no data. Irani’s response was that DU “has reported that the (PMSSS) has not been dealt with by the university...college-related information, if any, is not available/maintained in a consolidated manner by the University.”

G.N. Var, chairman of the Coaching Centers Association of Kashmir, which first exposed the misuse, says that in the garb of free scholarships, the state government, HRD ministry and AICTE has “duped innocent Kashmiri students”. “The colleges our students are sent to are not reputed institutions. They are like poultry farms, desperate to have a good number of students on the rolls for their personal growth. And this PMSSS serves them perfectly well,” Var says. “There must be a thorough probe into the mess.”

J&K education minister and pdp spok­e­sman Naeem Akhtar admits there were serious flaws in the scheme’s implementation. He says “students were duped by NGOs which promised them scholarships while keeping them in the dark about the fine print”, terms and conditions of the scheme notified and the guidelines for its implementation. He says the HRD ministry has released Rs 25 crore to AICTE for renewal of the scholarships this year.  

Meanwhile, on April 3, the J&K HC issued a showcause notice to the government of India and authorities of a college in Haryana asking why three Kashmiri students were debarred from pursuing their bba studies under the PMSSS. The trio, studying at the Delhi Technical Cam­pus (DTC), Bahadurgarh, had completed five of the six semesters but were not allowed into the sixth. They were asked to pay Rs 28,000 extra (besides the Rs 1.20 lakh paid by the government). The court has directed the college to allow the students to continue their studies and also take exams till further orders.

By Showkat A. Motta in Srinagar