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VCK Founder-President Thol Thirumavalavan has alleged that the BJP-led Centre had reduced scholarship allocations for students from reserved categories and urged the INDIA bloc parties to raise the issue during Parliament's Monsoon Session.
"On behalf of VCK, I spoke (at the INDIA bloc online meeting on July 19) about the post-metric scholarship and overseas scholarship for students from reserved categories and minorities. Over the past decade, the BJP government has gradually reduced the allocation of scholarships to students from reserved categories," Thirumavalavan told ANI on Sunday. "On behalf of the INDIA Bloc, we have to raise this issue to protect the rights of minorities," he said. Thirumavalavan said that DMK's Tiruchi Siva raised in the meeting the Union Government's alleged failure to release the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan fund to Tamil Nadu. "D Raja (Communist Party of India General Secretary) spoke about Operation Kagar. The Union Government took some steps against tribals in Jharkhand in the name of extremists... Tiruchi Siva spoke about the Union Government's failure to release the amount for SSA (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan). So all the leaders from the INDIA bloc have to pressurise the Union Government to release this amount for Tamil Nadu," he said. The Monsoon Session of Parliament is set to begin tomorrow, with the Opposition parties planning to discuss the Pahalgam terror attack, demand accountability from the government, and raise the issue of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists in Bihar ahead of the upcoming assembly polls. Congress MP KC Venugopal said today that the INDIA bloc will raise the demand to restore the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir in the upcoming Parliament Session. Sharing an X post, he wrote, "Did PM Modi lie on the floor of Parliament about granting statehood for J&K? If not, why has J&K Police arrested JKPCC President Tariq Hameed Karra ji & other Congress leaders?" The Congress MP further questioned the police for allegedly sealing the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC)'s office in Srinagar. "Why did they seal the PCC Office in Srinagar yesterday & stopped our party workers from protesting peacefully for statehood?" he wrote in the X post. "In the upcoming Parliament session, INDIA alliance will be demanding that full statehood be restored in J&K immediately. This farce cannot go on any longer," the X post read. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will brief mediapersons tomorrow just before the commencement of the first day of the Monsoon Parliament session. Just before the commencement of the first day of the Fifth Session of the Eighteenth Lok Sabha, PM Modi will be briefing accredited media persons, according to an official statement. (ANI)
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