Demand raised in LS for restoring pre-matric scholarship, Maulana Azad Fellowship for minorities
New Delhi, Dec 13: Several parliamentarians on Tuesday demanded in Lok Sabha that the pre-matric scholarship and Maulana Azad Fellowship for minority students be restored, saying how will the country progress if the minority communities are left behind.
The Maulana Azad Fellowship for minority students pursuing higher education has been scrapped while the government's pre-matric scholarship for them will no longer apply to students from Class 1 to Class 8.
Several Muslim MPs raised the demand of bringing back the scholarships.
During a discussion on the supplementary demands for grants, BSP MP Danish Ali said the pre-matric scholarship and Maulana Azad Fellowship must be restored. "Everyone needs to be taken along for the prosperity of the country. How can you leave minorities behind and prosper?"
AIMIM MP Syed Imitiaz Jaleel also raised the demand, asking how will minority students study and progress if this fellowship is stopped.
Raising the issue of the education of minorities, Samajwadi Party member S T Hasan said the government should restart the scholarships it has done away with like the Maulana Azad National Fellowship. All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) chief Badruddin Ajmal also demanded that the scholarships be restored and called for enhancing the budget for minorities to provide education to them.
In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, Minority Affairs Minister Smriti Irani had said the government provided fellowship for higher education through various schemes, including the Maulana Azad National Fellowship, implemented by different ministries or departments.
All these schemes, except the Maulana Azad National Fellowship, are open for candidates of all communities, including minorities, but the data of fellowship distributed among minority students is captured only under the Maulana Azad National Fellowship scheme, she had said.
"Since the MANF (Maulana Azad National Fellowship) scheme overlaps with various other fellowship schemes for higher education being implemented by the government and minority students are already covered under such schemes, hence the government has decided to discontinue the MANF Scheme from 2022-23," Irani had said.
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MP cruise boat tragedy: Search ops expanded to trace four missing passengers
Jabalpur (PTI): Army divers and disaster response teams on Saturday expanded their search at Bargi Dam in Madhya Pradesh to locate a man and three children still missing after the cruise boat tragedy that claimed nine lives two days ago, officials said.
With 28 of the 41 identified passengers onboard the ill-fated cruise boat rescued safely, police are preparing to register an FIR in connection with the accident that occurred at the reservoir in Jabalpur district on Thursday evening, they said.
The search radius has been expanded to 5 km in the backwaters of the Bargi Dam, located downstream of the Narmada River, area sub-divisional officer of police (SDOP) Anjul Ayank Mishra told PTI.
Nine people drowned in the incident, while 28 were rescued, and efforts are ongoing to trace the missing persons, he said.
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According to the police, more than 200 rescuers, including around 20 Army divers airlifted from Agra, began the search operation at 5 am on Saturday to trace Kamraj, an employee of the Ordnance Factory in Khamaria, his son Tamil (5), Vijay Soni (6) and Mayuram (5).
Mishra said that an inquest case has been registered and the post-mortem of nine deceased persons has been completed.
"Our priority is to search for the missing persons. We will soon register an FIR," he said.
Investigators have said that CCTV footage near the boarding point showed 43 people heading towards the ill-fated boat, and the names of 41 persons, who boarded the vessel, have been ascertained so far.
Collector Raghvendra Singh confirmed that a search is underway for four missing persons.
The rescue operation, being carried out by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and local divers, was briefly affected around 9 am due to strong winds.
The state government on Friday ordered a probe into the incident and dismissed three crew members after survivors alleged negligence and safety lapses, including failure to provide life jackets.
The government also banned the operation of similar vessels in the state.
The boat, operated by the state tourism department, sank during a sudden storm around 6 pm on Thursday, and the wreckage was retrieved from the dam water on Friday, after the rescuers confirmed that there were no more bodies inside.
Eyewitnesses have said that strong winds made the water choppy, prompting passengers to raise an alarm and ask the crew to steer the vessel towards the riverbank.
A survivor alleged negligence by the crew and described a last-minute scramble for life jackets.
