By YKA Staff:
Students in Bihar, protesting under the banner of Bharatiya Chhatra Kalyan Sangh, were beaten up by the police on August 3, according to reports. They were protesting against cuts in the centrally-sponsored post-matric scholarship awarded to SC/ST students. A May 16 circular by the SC/ST Welfare Department of the Bihar Government says that the maximum amount of scholarship for the fiscal year 2015-2016 is to be Rs. 15,000. The amount of scholarship is based on the course in which the student is enrolled in. The maximum limit of the amount of scholarship was Rs. 1 lakh earlier, reports say.
Local newspapers reported that the students were demanding a reversal of the change in the amount of scholarship, reservation in promotion, and a welfare hostel in each district. SC/ST students from all across the state were to march from the JP Roundabout to the legislative assembly but were apprehended by the police at roundabout. In the altercation that followed, both students and police are reported to have been injured.
The lathicharge on the students has united the opposition parties in both the legislative assembly and the legislative council. House proceedings in the assembly were stalled on August 4 by members of the BJP and its allies as well as CPI-ML, who raised anti-government slogans.