On Wednesday, November 9, Education Minister of Shillong Lahkmen Rymbui announced that the scholarship amounting to more than Rs 169 crore had been released for the year 2021-22. As many as 61,116 students will be benefitted from these pre-matric and post-matric scholarship funds, as stated in a report by The Shillong Times. Further, the Minister asserted that the government was not expecting a delay and, while willing to ensure the timely release of scholarship funds, he said that individual accounts of the beneficiaries will start receiving money through PMFS (Public Financial Management System).
However, the Hynniewtrep Youth Council (HYC) was planning to stage a peaceful procession and hold a meeting on Thursday, November 10, to deliberate on the delay in releasing students’ scholarships. A few news reports online reported, on Thursday, that HYC threatened to close down the Secretariat if the government fails to credit the scholarship to the respective bank accounts of the students.
Despite the announcement by the government, a protest was staged by HYC on Thursday in which hundreds of students from different colleges and universities joined outside the Shillong Law College against the delay of the government to release the scholarship of 2021-2022 to the students. Further, HYC Education Secretary Enlang Sawian said that they will give six days' time to the state government to deposit the scholarship amount to the students' bank accounts. If not done, they said they will intensify the agitation to the extent of even locking the secretariat.
