AAP government's education credit guarantee scheme 'hyped up': Congress

NEW DELHI: Congress today hit out at Delhi government over its higher education credit guarantee scheme, alleging it was "hyped up" and not a single student has been benefited by the plan till date after it was announced two months ago.

Congress' Delhi unit also condemned the AAP government's reported move to bring 12 Delhi University (DU) colleges under Dr B R Ambedkar University, saying the decision will be resisted "with all Congress' might".

"The government has spent crores of rupees on advertisements aired to credit themselves for the said scheme. However, the scheme was fraught with so much unexplained trap that no student has come forward to avail of the scheme," Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken told reporters here.

Maken said the revelation was came up in the government's response to a RTI query made by his party.

He added that under the new scheme, the government has laid "unique condition" that parents of loan-seeking students will have to apply as joint borrowers with their wards. Liability on parents therefore, Maken said, will be more now from a 'guarantor' earlier to a 'joint borrower'.

Maken also took potshots at the government, saying size of the scheme's budget (Rs 30 crore) was "equivalent" to that of publicity of the said scheme.

"Such misleading propaganda and wastage of public resources clearly reveals that 'self-publicity' but not real work is agenda of the government", he alleged.

Maken lauded the then Congress-led UPA government claiming it had distributed education loans worth Rs 57,700 crore up to December 31, 2013 benefiting over 25 lakh students.

On AAP government's reported move to bring colleges under Ambedkar University, he said, the decision will not only encroach upon DU's autonomous powers, but also affect 20,000 students and quality of education imparted to them.

"Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has neither lived in Delhi for long, nor studied in DU and therefore, was not aware of ground reality prevailing in the varsity," he alleged.

The former Union Minister said Congress, along with students and teachers, will mount pressure on Delhi government to withdraw it.