Over 150 students from Nagaland had to leave a college of engineering and technology in Modinagar, UP, midway into their course after their scholarship, promised by the government in Kohima, failed to arrive. They had run up a bill of Rs 1.86 crore.
On Sunday evening the students quietly boarded three buses and left for Ghaziabad, from where, some of them said, they will figure out how to reach Dimapur.
Deepankar Sharma, director of Divya Jyoti College of Engineering and Technology, confirmed to TOI on Monday that the Naga students had indeed left campus. “The total strength of the college is 800 and around 150 students are Scheduled Tribe students from Nagaland. The students came here on a scholarship programme, under which the Nagaland government was supposed to pay their entire tuition fees, which is Rs 1 lakh per annum. The students had to only pay Rs 60,000 as hostel fees. They had been paying their hostel fees in installments but have not paid any tuition fees since the last academic session started in July 2014. Two semesters of the last academic session and one from this session have passed but we let the students stay. The scholarship amount has not come to this day.”
Back in Kohima, sources in the government told TOI that Nagaland had indeed not paid the institute for some time now and owed the college “about Rs 1 crore”.
A senior official in the government said they were, however, not aware of the students being turned away from the engineering college for failing to pay the fees. “We are not aware of any such reports. But the state government will look into the matter,” he said, adding that the students were sponsored to study at the institute.
Both students from the first semester and those in the third have left the college, their dues adding up to close to Rs 1.90 crore. P Hiska, a BTech student and one of the group to have packed his bags, said, “In 2014, we got in touch with a career counselling NGO in Dimapur who informed us of the scholarship. We went to Delhi for an interview with officials at the Union ministry of tribal affairs and were told that we had been selected and the funds would be transferred to our state government soon. The state government was supposed to transfer the funds to us. In December 2014, we learnt that the funds had been transferred to the state government. But there was nothing from them after that.”
Hiska added, “On my last trip to Nagaland, I even went to Kohima and spoke to officials in the state education ministry. They said they had received the funds but they did not know how much money had come. Because of this, our future is hanging in the balance.”
Asked if the students had any chance getting back into the college, Sharma said, “The scholarship students from Nagaland collectively owe us around Rs 1.86 crore. On Saturday, we told them that we understand their problems and we asked them to stay back and pay their fees in instalments. We either ask our students to pay the entire fees for the year or pay Rs 50,000 per semester. In this case, we made an exception and said they could pay in monthly installments. We gave them time to think about the offer but by noon on Sunday, we had found they had all left the college premises.”
Hiska, however, debunked the administration’s version and said they had been asked to vacate the campus. “On Saturday, the director and other members of the administration came to us and told us that we had to pay an instalment if we wanted to stay. We were given an ultimatum of two days. We were told that we would be asked to leave in two days. The college even refused to give us an extension when we asked for one. We had no choice, so we packed our bags and left for Ghaziabad on Sunday.”
The students, currently in Ghaziabad, are hopeful things will turn for the better. “We called up our NGO and they promised us that they would take us to the state government when we go back,” one of them said. “They are planning a stir involving all of us.”
(TOI, With inputs from Xavier Rutsa, Kohima)