Mangalore: Students urge U T Khadar to reintroduce fee concession for minorities
Pics: Meryick D’Silva
Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (NM)
Mangalore, Feb 8: Students, mostly belonging to School of Social Work, Roshni Nilaya on Saturday February 8 asked U T Khadar, minister for health and family welfare to reintroduce fee concession scheme for minority students which has been dropped starting this academic year.
Irshad Goonadka, a student of social work said, "After separation of the department of minorities and the department of other backward classes (OBC), which were earlier functioning as one, the scheme on fee concession has been dropped for the students belonging to minorities and only the students from OBCs enjoy the facility."
As a result, nearly 40,000 students of undergraduate and postgraduate courses belonging to the minority community cannot apply for fee concession, he further said, requesting the minister to take action on the matter.
The students told U T Khadar that none of their requests or memorandums has evoked any response from any of the ministers. "We have previously approached Udupi district incharge minister Vinay Kumar Sorake and Dakshina Kannada district incharge B Ramanath Rai who promised to take action but nothing has been done," they said.
Another student Preetham D’Souza said, "According to the circular, the last date to apply for fee concession is February 15. However, the circular clearly states that the scheme is applicable only for students belonging to OBC."
In response, Khadar called up the principal secretary of the state government on the spot and requested that the fee concession for minority students be continued this year as per the students' demand. The principal secretary promised to discuss the matter with higher authorities.