The students belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes from Maharana Pratap National College,Mullana,in the district have been agitating for the last three days for the payment of scholarship and grant running into lakhs of rupees. The students have not been paid the amount since 2007. Hundreds of students held a demonstration against the college management who,they alleged,had withheld the payment. The grant for SC and BC students is granted by the state government and is received by the management every year. The grant is released to the students every month. The students alleged that the management had been receiving the amount of grant and scholarships from its introduction in the state in 2007 but the students didnt receive the money till date. They further alleged that they had been approaching the principal and the management members since 2007 but no one wither form the management or the office had intervened to make payments. The students raised slogans against the management and demanded that administrator should be appointed by dissolving the management. There had been a dispute between the management and the principal. The principal was suspended following leveling of allegations of misappropriation of funds made by the management. But the principal Dr Ashima Joshi moved the court from where she got the relief and was reinstated in the year 2009 But the management,she alleged,had not been cooperating in running the affairs of the college. On enquiry about the non-payment of grants,she said that since whole record of grants was under the custody of head clerk he locked it in a room after his retirement under influence of the outgoing president of management. She said that the matter had been raised with the government for reimbursement of the grants to the students. Permission to break open the record room has also been sought so that the students grants and scholarships cold be released. No member of the management was available for comments.
