Cancellation of scholarships has MANUU students worried; 1,800 to be affected

Hyderabad: Over 1,800 students of Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) are now worried about their scholarships offered under the National Scholarship Portal (NSP) by the Ministry of Minority Affairs (MoMA). This year, MANUU has been taken down from the list of beneficiary universities. Students blame the negligence of the university administration and district-level authorities.

What happened?

From MANUU, about 1,600 beneficiaries applied for various scholarship schemes under the NSP and 200 students applied for a renewal. Most of the students from backward groups depend on scholarships to pay their mess and semester fees.

The last date for verification by district nodal officers was 10 January. Unfortunately, a student from a vocational course (VOC) who was not eligible for the scholarship applied for it. Though all 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 and the scholarships of about 1,800 bonafide students are pending.

“All students received emails informing them about the cancellation of the scholarships on 6 January. After a student filed an RTI, we got a reply about the anomalous application and found that the district nodal officer from Bihar rejected an application and marked it as a fake institution due to which all other applications got rejected and couldn’t be verified. We have repeatedly reminded the university authorities but they need to take satisfactory measures,” said Mohammed Faraz Ahmed, MA Political Science student at Maulana Azad National Urdu University.

What do the officials say?

When the students took up the issue with the university Vice-Chancellor, Professor Syed Ainul Hasan, he assured the students he would speak on this issue in Delhi on 7 February. But the same was said during the earlier protests on 9 and 12 January. “The Vice-Chancellor has informed the Maulana Students Union (MSU) that he will visit Delhi on 7 February and will have a final discussion regarding NSP, hostel allotment, and other issues raised,” said Mohammed Faraz Ahmed.

Other issues

Further, the students also requested the university officials to provide mess and hostel facilities for non-boarder students. While a temporary mess facility is provided every year, the students say it is yet to be started this year. “The hostel allotment in the newly-extended building of Shibhi Nomani Hostel is yet to start. There is an urgent need to consider the problem of non-boarder students and allot them a hostel,” said a student of the university.