The Delhi government will soon bring a bill to fix accountability and punish guilty officials for delays in releasing scholarships to the students belonging to SC, ST and minorities communities.
The move comes after a number of cases of non-disbursal of large number of scholarships to students belonging to SC, ST and minorities communities emerged.
The government will also bring a bill in the Assembly to set up a SC commission for Delhi, Social Welfare minister Rajendra Pal Gautam said replying to a calling attention motion on the last day of the special session.
"The SC/ST development fund Bill is ready we will soon bring it in the House so that concerned officials could be prosecuted for delay and negligence in disbursal of scholarships.
"The SC Commission Bill will also brought in the House to set up the body in Delhi," he said.
The calling attention motion was moved by AAP MLA Adarsh Shastri to discuss reports of non disbursal scholarships to the SC, ST and minority categories students in Delhi.
Shastri referred to a report by the Dialogue and Development Commission of Delhi (DDC) that said that more than five lakh scholarships to SC/ST and minorities were yet to be disbursed in Delhi.
Participating in the discussion, the ruling party MLAs blamed the National Scholarship Portal for non disbursal of the scholarships.
The issue was raised in the House after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal wrote to the Chief Secretary MM Kutty expressing concerns over five lakh SC/ST and minority students not getting scholarships.
About 5.57 lakh scholarships were to be disbursed and there was a delay of about 16 months.
"The National Scholarship Portal was launched under the Prime Minister's digital India initiative. The students fell victim to digital India," AAP MLA Alka Lamba said.
The BJP-SAD legislator Manjinder Singh Sirsa attacked the AAP government during the discussion, saying that he had flagged the issue in a meeting with the Lt Governor and also written to the Chief Minister in this regard.
"The government slept for one month despite although I had sent letters to the Chief Minister and Secretary SC/ST Welfare in this regard. There is no point in shifting the blame on Central government," Sirsa said.
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