Punjab Universities and Colleges hail Centre Govt PMS reforms 

Jalandhar: Government of India’s Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved changes in the centrally sponsored Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme. The government has allocated over Rs 59,000 crores for the purpose, of which the central government will spend Rs 35,534 crore - around 60 per cent of the total. This replaces the existing system and brings greater involvement of the central government in this scheme as per the official release by the Government of India.
All the Universities and Colleges of Punjab have hailed this decision of the Government and have given all the credit to Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Government of India, Mr. Som Parkash.
 
Mr. Satnam Singh Sandhu, Chancellor, Chandigarh University and Chief Patron, JAC specially thanked Sh. Som Parkash, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry on behalf of JAC for accepting the request of JAC and making tireless efforts for the enactment of this scheme. He mentioned that for the last three years SC students of the state suffered a lot due to lack of clarity in the PMS scheme. However, due to such unique and hard efforts of Mr. Som Parkash the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved changes in the centrally sponsored Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme to benefit not only Punjab students but also, in all, more than 4 crore Scheduled Caste students of the country in the next five years.
 
Thanking Mr. Som Parkash and Central Government, LPU Chancellor Mr Ashok Mittal shares: “The change in the scheme was an urgency as the concerned students of the state were in problem. The same was shared with Mr. Som Parkash Ji, who is Punjab representative in the Central Government. He took this initiative on his shoulders as his own. He also took along the association and kept us in the loop while keeping up the efforts. When the Mr Minister asked for data from us then we realised that the needed work would soon be done. We are extremely thankful to associated ones also for this rare achievement for the SCs of Punjab and India.”
 
Dr. Gurmeet Singh Dhaliwal, Chairman, Joint Association of Colleges (JAC) mentioned that this change in Post Matric Scholarship (PMS) Scheme will benefit the large SC population in the state of Punjab. As per the available data, the Scheduled Caste population in Punjab is 88.60 lac which is 31.94% of the total population (277.43 lac)of the State. Otherwise also, as per 2011 census, the Punjab State is with largest SC population in the country.  For this, Punjab Private Colleges & Universities have accorded earnest thanks to the Hon’ble Minister Mr. Som Parkash for his efforts.
 
Jagjit Singh, President, JAC said that as per previous policy the complete liability of the Post Matric Scholarship Scheme for SC is of the state Govt. from 2017-18 to 2020-21. He requested to the Govt. of India to implement this policy w.e.f. 2017-18 onwards to bail out the suffering unaided colleges.
 
Dr. Anshu Kataria, Co-Chairman and S. Sukhmander Singh Chatha, General Secretary, JAC said that due to non-release of fees of SC students under the said scheme to the colleges they are unable to admit SC students under this scheme. They urged to both state and centre government to clarify to the colleges that who will pay the claim of fees from 2017-18 to 2020-21.
 
S. Charanjeet Singh Walia, S. Manjit Singh, Patron, S. Nirmal Singh, Sr. Vice President, JAC, Sh. Shimanshu Gupta, Finance Secretary, S. Jasnik Singh, S. Satwinder Singh Sandhu, Sh. Vipan Sharma Vice President and Rajinder Singh Dhanoa, Secretary JAC said that the withdrawal of the scheme by the Govt. of India from 2017-18 has made it difficult for them to admit students under this scheme. They also welcomed this decision and urged the Govt. to clear all the pending dues at the earliest.