The J&K government has offered a scholarship of Rs 750 per month to each Kashmiri Pandit (KP) student for pursuing his/her studies. However, there is a catch: to avail the scholarship, the student will have to return and settle in the Valley. Also, only students upto the age of 18 years are eligible for the scholarship though ?in exceptional cases, the age limit shall be relaxed up to 21?.
In order to achieve its much-publicised target of getting some KP families which migrated out of Kashmir after the outbreak of militancy almost 20 years ago to return to Kashmir, the state government has also abandoned its earlier proposal for another scholarship to KP students intending to pursue graduation and post-graduation courses in Jammu region.
In its response to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the government has claimed that the scholarship of Rs 750 per-student-per-month was part of the Prime Minister?s scheme for the return and rehabilitation of KP migrants to Kashmir.
But NHRC officials say this still doesn?t explain why the government has quietly buried another proposed scheme that would have paid a monthly stipend of Rs 200 to each student doing a graduation course and Rs 250 to those pursuing post-graduate courses.
?Does the government seriously think it can force anybody to return by offering a scholarship of Rs 750 per month??, said an official.
The issue of grant of scholarship and stipend to children of KP migrants has been pending in the NHRC since the last many years but only assumed importance late last year when, peeved with the attitude of the J&K government, the NHRC directed the chief secretary to be present at the next hearing.
In response to a query raised by the NHRC, the state government informed it that the state education department had formulated a scholarship scheme for the benefit of the KP migrant students who are pursuing graduation and post-graduation courses in Jammu. However, the scheme, first mooted in early 2008, remained a non-starter as it was not approved by the executive council of the state government?s rehabilitation council after it came to light that the matter related to the revenue and rehabilitation department.