Chandigarh - The BJP has given a sharp response to the accusations made by the state finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema of deliberately blocking the post matric scholarship of Dalit students in Punjab. In Chandigarh on Monday, senior BJP leader and former Union Minister Vijay Sampla said that Cheema is telling absolute lies. They are making such baseless allegations to defame BJP. Such dirty politics does not befit a responsible person holding an important post like Finance Minister.
Sampla said that Cheema's statement that the BJP government at the Center has stopped the scholarships of Dalit students in the state is a very childish statement. Sampla said that Cheema says that the Aam Aadmi Party government of the state has given Rs 91 crore as scholarship to about 1 lakh 17 thousand Dalit students and is also saying that about 2.5 lakh students have applied for the scholarship. . If this is true, then Cheema should explain why the state government distributed scholarships to only 1 lakh 17 thousand students.
 Why are the rest of the students deprived of this benefit? Why is the state government playing with the future of those children? The former Union minister said that Cheema is alleging that the central government has not given even a single rupee for the scholarship from 2017 to 2023. But there is no truth in this either. The central government has released the budget from time to time. But the truth is that when the state government sees that it also has to pay 40 percent of the budget and the number of students for registration starts increasing, then the state government itself closes the portal, due to which the students are not able to register. He said, I myself have spoken to the authorities about this many times. Earlier, the officials used to make an excuse that they have closed the portal on the orders of the central government.
 He said that the central government keeps the portal open throughout the year from April 1 to March 31. The state government is cheating Dalit students by repeatedly closing the portal. Sampla said that as far as the question of non-release of money from 2017 to 23 is concerned, the state government did not give at its level. The center has released the entire amount from its side. He said that the Department of Social Justice of the Central Government has informed that in 20-21 under this scheme, the Central Government had given 219.20 crore rupees at the rate of 60 percent. At that time, the then state government had stated in writing that it has additional funds of about Rs.140.36 crore released by the central government under this scheme. Including this, the Center was due Rs 88.84 crore, which was released by the Center on time.
 Similarly, about 1 lakh 92 thousand 471 children were registered in the year 2021-22. For them, the central government had released its share of Rs 272.73 crore on time. In 22-23, the Center released Rs 248.99 crore for 1 lakh 98 thousand students. 172.55 crores have been released by the Center so far for 79 thousand registered students in 2023-24 and will be released in the future as well. In such a situation, Harpal Cheema is making false statements only to mislead the public.
Whereas, due to the failure of the state government, today poor Dalit students are not getting admission in many educational institutions. Because educational institutions say that this money has not been released by the state government. He said that it is very sad that the Bhagwant Mann government of the state has been in power for two years, but it is not even aware of the schemes being run by the central government for the welfare of students.
 This post matric scheme information is because the number of its beneficiaries in the state is quite large. He said that the central government has started a plan to build hostels for students, whether they are girls or boys. But the state government may not even know about it. If he knows, tell him how many hostels have been requested from the center in those two years. He said that the state government does not have complete information about all the schemes of the Centre, they only have the expertise to tell lies in the name of truth.