Congress in Karnataka slashes scholarships by 80 to 85 percent

Karnataka Building and other Construction Workers Welfare Board has slashed the scholarship amount by more then 75 percent in a majority of cases ranging from school level to higher education

Hyderabad: The Congress government’s five guarantees appear to be casting an adverse impact on implementation of other welfare programmes in Karnataka, with the cuts in scholarships by the Karnataka Building and other Construction Workers Welfare Board indicating the same.

The Board has slashed the scholarship amount by more then 75 percent in a majority of cases ranging from school level to higher education. Orders to this effect were issued on October 30, triggering protests from unions and other sections. For instance, a MBBS student’s scholarship will be now cut from the annual Rs.60,000 to a mere Rs.11,000. Similarly, a PG student’s scholarship will be slashed from Rs.35,000 to Rs.10,000.

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There are about 44 lakh registered card holders and the board collects an annual cess of nearly Rs.1,000 crore. The current corpus of the Board is about Rs.7,000 crore, according to reports.

Raising objections to the cuts in scholarships, the Voice of Parents Association, which works to restore children’s right to education said on X (formerly Twitter): “Cash-strapped Karnataka cuts scholarship funds. Labour’s department has decided to cut the scholarship amount by 80 to 85 percent from school level to higher education. Students pursuing engineering or medical and other masters will be hit hardest. Misplaced priorities, children need education for self-employment, not freebies…”

However, Karnataka Labour’s Minister Santosh Lad was quoted in media reports that while the maximum applications received among all the schemes had not increased three lakh in the past, the Karnataka Building and other Construction Workers Welfare Board had received 13 lakh applications for scholarships alone this time.

“The annual cess collected, which is about Rs.1,000 crore should also be considered. On an average, Rs.10,000 each is given to 7 lakh students, it would be Rs.700 crore. There are 14 programmes that are operated by the Board. How can we manage them,” Lad was quoted as saying.

The ruling Bharath Rashtra Samithi (BRS) slammed the Congress, which is boasting about Karnataka model of ‘development ‘.

BRS working president KT Rama Rao, while responding to Voice of Parents Association on X, said “Wah Scamgress Wah. Elect clowns, all you get is a circus. Reject Scamgress, vote for progress…”