Srinagar | Aga Syed Amin | Dec 24:Jammu and Kashmir PMSS sponsored students are deprived to get any scholarship from June this year which has created tremendous hardships for them , they have approached to many big- wig officials but yield no fruits.

The students were told that no maintenance will be realized till they attend college physically “ we were told for no maintenance fee to be paid as scholarship until we won’t make sure our physical appearance in the college as cyberspace classes don’t mean the physical presence of students in college “ said a student on anonymity .

Students like Arman who has been summoned to attend college  from the coming month despite having even no single penny to book flights .

“ I’ve been told to attend college at the risk of turning out to pauperism ,I can’t methodize  money to board any communication.

The time of pandemic has created heaps of unemployment in the era of globalisation. Said, Arman, how can I pay the magic lamp to get things done according to my wish

It is note worthy to mention here that JKPMSS was launched in 2011 to grant scholarships to assist deprived students for fetching education across the country.

After Covid – 19 emergence earlier in March this year , all educational institution were bolted in wake of gruesome fatal fear of the virus students outside fled to home in hysterics but the maintenance fee remained charging and mounting up the college fees have been processed by the JKPMSS Department.

The scholarship is given on the basis of need and merit to the students having family income of less than Rs 8 lakh per year. Every year, students from lower economic background depend entirely on the scholarship for their higher studies and if denied the full scholarship, they will be forced to drop-out from the colleges.

Another student from South Kashmir’s Anantnag, Manzoor told Wilayat Times that those students who lived outside campus in rented spaces are suffering even worse as they still have to pay the room rent.

“Although I am in Kashmir but I am still paying for the room I rented outside the campus in Vellore. My parents are not capable of taking care of my finances. Doesn’t that count as maintenance charge?,” he said.

Aftab Matloob, student of Parul Institute of Pharmacy in Gujarat, who hails from North Kashmir’s Baramulla said that he has not even received college fees following which his semester result has been withheld by the college administration.

“The college fees of the entire academic year 2020-21 is pending. The authorities have withheld my results of previous semester because of pending fees. The college authorities have also warned me by asking me to pay the fee, otherwise they won’t allow me to sit for the coming internals.”

The Students’ Federation of India has condemned the authorities for not releasing full scholarship of the odd semesters to the students. The office bearers, according to a statement from SFI, have cited it as the Ministry’s order and claimed that there was no need for maintenance charges as the students were not present in the colleges physically and they were studying from home which, according to them, should incur no maintenance charges.

“The reason given for freezing of maintenance charges is highly pathetic and illogical,” the SFI statement said.

The students in Jammu and Kashmir are attending online classes even as high-speed 4G internet remains a distant dream, which has made it difficult for them to attend the online classes conveniently.

Citing the various extra costs that a student has to cope with for attending online classes, the statement added, “Online education, downloading study materials, research and project preparation, etc., is highly difficult with 2G internet in place. The students have to incur additional charges to buy extra data packs for the extended online classes and for the installation of broadband services and its monthly fee, if required. Procurement of a feasible device for online education (phone/laptop) to cope up with online classes and also with projects and practical’s in some courses is essential too.”