While Mizoram budget allotted 100 lakhs for each 40 legislators at their sole discretion, yet the budget failed to ration money for students who have to undergo compulsory field trip to get bachelor degree !
While the legislators are spending the state budget okayed one crore moolahs to please their party workers, the students of Mizoram, who are compelled to do field trip outside the state to finish their graduation are selling pickles and carrying bricks to support themselves.
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The students, under the banner of All City Colleges Joint Students Union has made several pleas to the finance minister Lalsawta to take account of the matter, but still in vain.
They have approached the director of the higher and technical education department of the Mizoram government but were denied blankly.
“Last year, we sell pickles, worked as labourers carrying bricks to support the students who had to go on field trips to complete their graduation,” Lalnunpuia, president of All City Colleges Joint Students Union, said.
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Seeing the helplessness of the students college professors doled out whatever they could and donated money for their students.
“We have to bunk classes and make pickles in the college campus to meet our travel expenses, since the government cannot give us money for our field trip we have to find alternatives, without field trips and exposure studies, we cannot graduate,” said
Out of desperation the students have planned to gherao the office of the Director of the Higher & Technical department unless the government gave assurance that funds would be alloted for their studies.
“The All City Colleges Joint Students Union resolved that the Finance Minister and the Higher & Technical Minister should resign voluntarily if they cannot give grants to students,” said Lalnunpuia.
Repeated appeals were made to the state’s Finance Minister to include field trip and study tours funds in the budget, but the budget gave a mere 41 lakhs for scholarship and stipend if students, leave alone, funds for study tours.
“We demand the state government to allocate funds for our studies before April 10, 2018, or we will have to do what it takes,” said the All City Colleges Joint Students Union in a statement.
“The state government has put aside more than 1000 crores in its New Economic Development Programme, if they really care for the future of Mizoram, they will sure have the logical thinking of allotting at least for our studies,” Lalnunpuia said.