State has not disbursed tuition fee: Dalit students

September 06, 2015 12:00 am | Updated March 28, 2016 03:49 pm IST - MADURAI:

Dalit students pursuing various courses in schools and colleges from different districts, including Cuddalore, Tirupur, Tiruvannamalai and Kancheepuram, have complained that the State government had not disbursed the “tuition fee” promised to them, through a G.O., till date, thus forcing their parents to borrow money at exorbitant rates and remit it to the institutions.

Citing the Government Order (No. 92, Adi Dravida Welfare Department), the students said that the government had directed the Adi Dravida Welfare Department to find out the number of students, whose parents’ annual income was not above Rs.2.50 lakh (per annum) as eligible for getting the financial assistance till they completed the courses.

“Irrespective of the course and be it in government colleges or aided institutions or self-finance institutions, the government had promised the students to give them the “tuition fee” till completion of the course.”

“The only criterion is the parents income should not exceed Rs.2.50 lakh and on admission, the institutions should not demand them the fee,” the students said, and added that for the last three years, Dalit students pursuing various degrees through distance learning programme in Annamalai University, Chidambaram, Cuddalore district, alone had to get Rs.21.60 crore from the government.

Speaking on anonymity, the students said that there were nearly 275 educational institutions, including schools and colleges in Tiruvannamalai district, where Dalit students pursued courses.

In the last four years, i.e., since 2011, a sum of Rs.6 crore was due to them from the government.

In Tirupur district, the dues accounted for Rs.4 crore since the beginning of the academic year 2011-12. In Gandhigram Rural Institute near Dindigul, several students complained that they were forced to remit the ‘tuition fee’ in the institute as the government had not responded to the correspondence between the GRI and the Adi Dravida Welfare department, they claimed.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.