Over 1,500 students of the Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) are worried about their pending Ministry of Minority Affairs (MoMA) scholarships. This year, MANUU has been taken down from the list of beneficiary universities. Students claim it was due to an error of a single student and the cancellation is unfair. With aspirations of obtaining the scholarship hanging fire, the student union of the varsity held a protest yesterday, February 3.
What is the matter?
As many as1,600 beneficiaries of various scholarship schemes offered by MoMA via the National Scholarship Portal (NSP) applied from MANUU this year, while about 200 students applied for a renewal, said Mohammad Abuhamza, President of MANUU Student Union. He explained that a student from a Vocational course (VOC), who was not eligible for the scholarship, applied for it. As such, though the beneficiaries' applications were passed at the university and district levels, the nodal officer, due to the anomalous application, struck out MANUU from the list of beneficiaries, as a suspicious entrant.
"Now, the scholarships of about 1,800 bonafide students are pending. It is illogical to punish everyone for the mistake of a single student," Abuhamza said. He recalls the students received emails informing them about the cancellation of the scholarships on January 6. "When the students approached the administration about it, they were told it was a technical issue in the scholarship portal and would be fixed soon. However, no other clarification was given," he said.
The developments
Confused, the students waited for a few days. When no clarity could be given by the varsity, they filed an RTI query and finally found out, through the reply, about the anomalous application. They also got to know that their applications had been rejected by the Bihar Nodal Office. "About a week went by and nothing was done by the administration. So, we held a protest on January 12," the student leader said.
According to a press release by the student union, "Vice-Chancellor Professor Syed Ainul Hasan, Registrar Professor Ishtiyaq Ahmed and Dean of Students Welfare (DSW) Professor Syed Aleem Ashraf Jayasi reached the spot," and assured them, asking the students to be patient. However, the students alleged that no step was taken still, and they were obliged to hold another protest on February 3, during which they submitted a memorandum to the VC.
Official word
When EdexLive reached out to DSW Prof Ashraf for a comment, he said, "The administration is constantly following up on the matter. Our VC has been making calls for resolution and has obtained appointments at MoMA. He will be meeting officials on Monday, February 6. The matter will be resolved soon."
Students, however, are dissatisfied. They state that they have been assured in similar ways in the past well. Nonetheless, they hope for a fruitful meeting of the VC and Ministry officials on Monday. "Had such a step been taken immediately, our scholarships would be getting processed now," Abuhamza stated. "The Vice-Chancellor has assured that the problem will be resolved by 7 February. Otherwise, the students say that they will sit on an indefinite dharna," the press release warns.
Other issues on campus
In the memorandum they submitted, the student union has also demanded accommodation issues at the varsity be addressed soon. It states that many students are staying outside the campus due to the lack of hostels. These were earlier provided mess facilities, which have not been started this year. Thus, the students want that the new hostel which is being built be completed soon and the mess facilities for off-campus students be resumed.
