Port Blair, July 26: The Non Gazetted Government Officers’ Association, A&N Islands has demanded early settlement of a large number of ‘Mess bill reimbursement’ cases pending with Education department. In a letter addressed to the Chief Secretary the Association pointed-out that hundreds of children studying in mainland are facing hardship as some authorities under the  Administration has created various new restrictions from the year 2019 for the eligibility of ‘mess bill reimbursement’ popularly known as Scholarship.

Shri T S Sreekumar, General Secretary of the Association said that around 300 students of these Islands are getting opportunities to study in educational institutions at mainland every year, as per Govt. of India’s scheme for States/UTs facing from shortage of facilities for higher education in Professional/Technical/Non-technical courses. The Administration or various Central agencies like CSAB are doing the allotment process for these seats in accordance with the criteria fixed by the Ministry of Home affairs, GOI. The Scholarship / mess bill reimbursement at the rate of Rs 2,500/- per month was a big help to most of the students as majority children studying in mainland, in seats sponsored by the administration, are from poor background. But in 2019 the Administration stopped this benefit suddenly, to a large number of children saying that these professional/technical courses are available here in these Islands. As a matter of fact only limited seats are available in these professional courses in our Islands and the infrastructural facilities also still developing.

The Association invited the attention of the Chief Secretary to the long pending problem in the smoothly run welfare scheme prevailed in the Islands and difficulties faced by the meritorious children belong to these Islands. It requested to order necessary steps to resume the disbursement of  said ‘scholarship’ to all children studying in mainland institutions .