Patma,(BiharTimes): Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi on Friday told the state Assembly that the scholarship amount to the Other Backward Castes (OBC) and Extremely Backward Castes (EBC) students was slashed last year as the government detected a big racket in their payment.

He said educational institutions from outside the state used to get them registered in Bihar and take the scholarship amount.

He said he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi a few weeks back and demanded Rs 300 crore for the scholarships to the OBC/EBC students. He said the PM appreciated the problem of the state.

The chief minister said he would again go to New Delhi to meet the PM and demand enhanced scholarship amount. He assured the OBC and EBC students that their post-matric scholarship amount would not be cut despite inadequate release of grants from the Centre.

The chief ministerial intervention came when the BJP members raised the issue of cut in scholarship amount.

When the same issue was raised in the Council a day earlier on Thursday by the BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi it led to clash and verbal exchange of abuses between the MLCs of the JD(U) and saffron party.

Like in the Council in the Assembly too, water resources department minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhury tried to respond to the charges of the BJP members. He said the issue was raised a day earlier in the Upper House too and added that the Centre was not giving matching grants to Bihar for the scheme. The state government had made a provision of Rs 289 crore for the scholarships and waited for Rs 289 crores from the centre. He claimed in 2013-14, the Centre did not give the matching grant. Yet, the state government allotted Rs 300 crore.

The minister said the government has decided to clear the backlog of scholarships for 2013-14 and would reimburse the tuition fees and hostel charges too. The scheme would be applicable to the students of both the government and private educational institutions.

Like SuMo in Council the issue was raised by leader of opposition Nand Kishore Yadav, who alleged the government was gradually slashing the annual scholarship amount from Rs one lakh in 2011-12 to Rs 75,000 in 2012-13 and Rs 15,000 in 2013-14. On July 14, 2014, the government issued a circular restricting the scholarship money to Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000 per student per year.

BJP members were apparently not satisfied with the reply of the government and entered into the well of the House, shouting slogans against the government. The Speaker adjourned the house till post-lunch session.