02, Feb 2016

Amarnath Tewary
Patna, February 2, 2016
Sixty Dalit students from Bihar, who are studying engineering in Orissa, have threatened to commit suicide after the Bihar government allegedly stopped paying their stipends to the college, and the students were forced to leave the institution.
All the 60 students had secured their admission in Rajdhani Engineering College, Bhubaneswar, in 2014 under the Bihar government’s Dalit Students Stipend Scheme. However, six months after the students’ admission to the college, the State government allegedly stopped the payment of the stipend, despite repeated requests by college authorities.
Under the Dalit Students Stipend Scheme, the State government pays Rs.1.1 lakh for each student annually. One of the 60 students, Gajendra Kumar, said: “The college authorities forced us to leave the institution and the hostel on January 8 this year, saying the Bihar government had failed to pay our stipend despite their repeated requests”.
Another student, Mukesh Kumar, told The Hindu over the phone, “the principal asked us to come only after our dues are cleared.”