Patna,(BiharTimes): Following the threat by Dalit students pursuing engineering course in Odisha to commit suicide the Bihar government announced that it would clear all their pending scholarship applications in the next 45 days.

Under the Dalit Stipend Scheme the Bihar government had last paid the stipend to the college one-and-a-half years ago. Ironically, Bihar then had a Dalit chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi.

The sudden decision of the state government has come after 60 Dalit students––42 from West Champaran and 18 from East Champaran––threatened to commit suicide after being ‘verbally’ expelled from Rajdhani Engineering College in, Bhubaneswar, on January 8.

“I have directed department officials to clear all the pending cases on a priority basis and within stipulated time. The stipend of only 63 students were withheld because of some irregularities though thousands of Dalit students are studying all over the country under this Scheme,” SC/ST welfare department minister Santosh Kumar Nirala said.

The fee was supposed to be paid by the state SC/ST welfare department and the amount was to be transferred to the college directly.

So far as the scholarship amount is concerned, each of these students gets Rs 26,000 per annum from the Bihar government towards payment of annual fees whereas they get Rs 24,000 per annum to meet food and lodging charges.

Raajdhani Engineering College director G S Mishra denied thecharge of expulsion, claiming that even though the fee had not been paid by the Bihar government right from 2014, when these students were admitted, yet the college never threw them out. He, however, did maintain that letters had been written to the Bihar government for clearing the dues.

However, one of the Dalit students agreed that even though the college did not issue any written order, pressure was being put on them right from July last year by teachers to deposit the fees. The director called them for a meeting at the fag end of 2015 and told them verbally to leave the college and go back home for arranging fees.

Rajdhani Engineering College falls under the ambit of Biju Patnaik Technical University.