Complaints against PM scholarship scheme being reviewed: Shashi Tharoor

Complaints have been received from Jammu and Kashmir students who have availed Prime Minister's Special Scholarship Scheme, Union Minister of State for HRD Shashi Tharoor said today, while giving an assurance that the grievances will be looked into and addressed. "Many complaints have arisen this year, but HRD minister Pallam Raju has relaxed the rules of the scheme and improved it further to enable more students of the state to take advantage of this.

"I assure you that every complaint and application is being reviewed and will be addressed," Tharoor said in his address at the convocation of National Institute of Technology, Srinagar at SKICC here.

Complaints have been received from students with regards to implementation of the scheme, meant to provide higher educational opportunities to students from the state. Several students studying in colleges outside the state under the scheme have claimed that they were asked to pay the fees and other dues or else their admission would be cancelled.

The minister assured the students that the complaints will be addressed saying, "It is also imperative that we understand that the education we provide here aims at nothing less than to prepare our students to compete with the world." Tharoor, whose wife Sunanda is a Kashmiri, said the Valley holds a special place in his heart and is the crown of the country.

"Kashmir holds a very special place in my heart as it does in the heart of every right-thinking patriotic Indian. My wife Sunanda is a proud daughter of Kashmir. Every visit to the state has left me enchanted and made me want to come back over and over again. It is literally and metaphorically the crown of India that adds legal luster to the idea of India," he said.