Don't discriminate against Dalit students: Sampla to edu insts

Union minister Vijay Sampla today said strict action will be taken against private educational institutions if the government receives complaints of discrimination against Dalit students or mis-utilisation of funds for post matric scholarships scheme for SCs and STs.
"We have been receiving complaints against some private educational institutions about discrimination against Dalit students, which include roll numbers not being given to them or they being not allowed to sit in exams for non-payment of fees," he said here.
"We will take strict action against such educational institutions if we receive complaints in future," the Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment said.

Under the Post Matric Scholarships scheme for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe students, their entire fee is paid to the college by the government, he added.
Sampla also said he had come to know that some private educational institutions were mis-utilising the scholarship schemes by making "fake" entry of the students.
"We have received complaints in which we found some institutions were making double entry or fake entry of the students. We warn them not to indulge in such illegal practice otherwise strict action, which include suspension of their recognition, would be taken," he said, adding such complaints have come from across the country.

Sampla, who is also Punjab BJP President, said in Punjab about Rs 60 crore has been surrendered by the educational institutions under the scholarship scheme.

He said state have also been asked to set up 'fee fixation committee' to bring in uniformity in the fees to be charged by educational institutions.
"We have witnessed a big difference between the fee charged by a government-owned institution and private institution. The respective state's 'fee fixation committee' will tell us about the fees charged by the government institution and to what extent private ones can charge," he said.
Sampla informed that his ministry had released a sum of Rs 173 crore under Post Matric Scholarships scheme for Scheduled Caste students in Punjab.

"With this, backlog of fees for the year 2014-15 has been cleared and 30 per cent of the total fee for 2015-16 has been cleared," he said.