Mangaluru Campus Front Of India(CFI) student members on Monday held a protest march till Minority office in city demanding the state government to release pending scholarships for minority students.

The students allege that Arivu loan scheme, post-matric and pre-matric scholarships are not regularly credited to the bank accounts of students. "Over 50% of the applicants are yet to receive the scholarships. When the students approach the concerned officials, they are saying that it is delayed due to issues in the banks. The students and their parents are already under distress amid Covid-19 pandemic. The schools and colleges are conducting online classes and forcing the parents to pay the fees," a student protester said. Another CFI member said that for PhD and MPhil minority students receive monthly fellowship of Rs 25,000 and Rs 10,000 contingency grant.

"But now, the government has deducted the fellowship to Rs 10,000. There are also technical issues in disbursing the scholarships. The process of distribution of scholarships must be simplified and the pending applications should be cleared at the earliest,-" he added.