Till authorities find a way out of the catch-22 situation, the good intentions and plans of the government to provide help to the poor will be met with failure.
The centre and the state government have initiated many steps to promote education among minorities. One of these steps is to provide scholarships to students from the minority communities. But trying to find out the actual number of genuine beneficiaries is not only difficult but almost impossible.
To be among the list of the beneficiaries, students must submit the application forms online. Then, after getting an online token, they must to write the token number on a hard copy of the application form and submit it to the school authorities along with an income certificate, bonafide certificate and a caste certificate. This application form has to be attested by the Inspector Of Schools and then submitted to the Andhra Pradesh State Minorities Finance Corporation before July 31.
If approved, a pre-matric student may get Rs. 5,000 per annum from the union government, and post-matric students may get Rs. 8,000 per annum.
Most of the parents whose wards ought to benefit from the scholarships are unaware of all the rules and regulations pertaining to the submission of forms.
Taking advantage of the parents' lack of knowledge, some schools sell the photocopies of these application forms for anything from Rs. 10 to Rs. 80.
2 of the most important requirements in the application forms are the income certificate and an account in a nationalised bank in the name of the beneficiary.
Former chief minister late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy had urged nationalised banks to open students' accounts with 'zero balance', so that they can be eligible for the scholarship scheme.
The banks, however, insist on Rs. 500 as the minimum balance amount, for a student account.
Then, the income certificate has to be issued by the Tahsildar / Mandal Revenue Officer. The procedure for obtaining an income certificate is to first fill out a form, get it attested by two gazetted officers, and submit it along with an affidavit on a Ten-Rupee Judicial Stamp Paper.
The first hurdle faced is the non-availability of the stamp paper in registration offices. Stamp papers are available at brokers', who charge Rs. 25 for a stamp paper with a face value of Rs. 10.
For those less literate parents, getting an affidavit typed incurs an additional expenditure of Rs. 50. After the parents get the affidavit typed on the stamp paper, comes the most difficult part.
No gazetted officer is willing to sign the affidavit. The rules say that the gazetted officer should bear responsibility for the applicant's income, and they are not willing to risk this.
If the parents somehow get them to sign the affidavit, and proceed to the MRO office, another shock awaits them. They now have to submit a copy of a 'white ration card', which says that the parents' income is less than Rs. 1 lakh per annum.
After the form is submitted, officials would visit the residence of the applicant and verify the fact. This can take anything up to a fortnight.
The whole process of submission of the scholarship application forms can take about a month.
This is if the parents take the prescribed route.
The easy way out is to simply approach a broker hovering around the Mandal Revenue Office, and pay him Rs. 800 to Rs. 1,400, depending on the ability to haggle, and obtain the income certificate within 3-4 days.
Hyderabad district Collector Natarajan Gulzar had passed orders last week that the income certificate should be given only on the basis of a white ration card. When officials at any MRO are approached, they claim that they have no instructions in writing.
The total expense, including the bribe to brokers for the income certificate, would amount to Rs. 2,000 to Rs. 2,500, that too after running around from pillar to post for a fortnight.
The amount is huge for a person earning less than Rs. 8,000 per month. If it is guaranteed that all applicants will be given scholarships, then a parent might indeed think of making the effort. But the irony is, after all the running around, the selection of an applicant for scholarship is purely a matter of chance.
On the other hand, complaints about students from comparatively better-off families applying successfully for these scholarship benefits remain.
The rules and regulations imposed by authorities to check misuse of scholarship schemes meant for economically-backward minorities are, ironically, proving to be the biggest hurdles in the way of genuine beneficiaries getting the benefits of these schemes.
Till the time the authorities find a way out of the catch-22 situation, the good intentions and plans of the government to provide help to the poor will be met with failure.
Courtesy: INN News