In CM Mann-led AAP government, the rights of Dalit students are completely safe - Harpal Cheema

Chandigarh, June 9, 2024: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) launched an attack on the Congress, BJP and the Akali Dal about post-matric scholarship given to Dalit students of Punjab. The party said that the previous governments deliberately stopped the scholarships of Dalit students so that they could not study.

Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters in Chandigarh on Sunday, senior AAP leader and Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said that the previous Congress government in the state and the BJP government at the Centre betrayed Dalit students  He also questioned the Akali Dal and said that from 2014 to 2020, Akali Dal's Harsimrat Kaur Badal was a cabinet minister in the Central Government but she never raised this issue with the Central Government. This shows that all three parties only cheat Dalits for votes.

Apart from Harpal Cheema, AAP MLA from Mohali Kulwant Singh and Bassi Pathana MLA Rupinder Singh Happy were also present in the press conference.

Cheema said that the result of stopping the scholarship was that the number of registrations of Dalit students decreased significantly. In 2020-21, this figure came down from 2.5 lakh to 1,76,000. When the AAP government released the scholarship money, Dalit students joined back, due to which this number increased to 2 lakh 26 thousand in 2022-23 and in 2023-24 this number further increased to about 2 lakh 40 thousand.

Cheema said that in the Post Matric Scholarship Scheme, the Central Government gives 60 percent share and the State Government gives 40 percent, but after 2017 neither the Center gave its 60 percent share nor the previous Congress government of the state released its 40 percent, due to which the degrees of lakhs of Dalit students were stopped and the studies of thousands were interrupted.

On the other hand, after the formation of the Aam Aadmi Party government, we released the outstanding amount of Rs 366 crore of 2017 to 2022 in 2023-24. Rs 183 crore in June 2023 and Rs 181 crore in August 2023. This gave relief to thousands of students and they could start their education again. This year also, as soon as the budget was passed, we released the 40 percent share of the state government, Rs 91 crore 46 lakh, which will benefit 1,17,346 Dalit students. He said that the Central Government is still withholding the scholarship money from 2017 to 2023.

 This proves that only the Aam Aadmi Party is pro-Dalit and thinks about the future of their children. We do not do Dalit vote politics like other parties. We are fulfilling the dreams of Baba Saheb Bhimrao Ambedkar where every child gets good education and gets all facilities without any discrimination.