Doctoral researchers from across the state of Karnataka have undertaken a letter campaign to pull the attention of the government towards them not receiving any fellowship for the last thirteen months. They have been sending letters to the Backward Commission; they have also written letters to the Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa and the leader of the opposition Siddaramaiah.
Over seven hundred Other Backward Castes (OBC) students from eleven universities and four agricultural universities have not received their monthly scholarship for the last thirteen months. The researchers have written letters to Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, Opposition Leader Siddaramaiah, Backward Classes Welfare Department Minister Kota Srinivasa Poojary and the Commissioner of the Department. The researchers have posted more than two hundred appeals for the release of the scholarship.
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Various Universities in the state were to provide monthly scholarships of Rupees five thousand. The Siddaramaiah government had started with this scholarship for a three years of duration. In 2018 the amount was doubled and the researchers were to receive a scholarship worth ten thousand rupees every month. However the researchers haven’t been receiving any scholarship from December 2019.
There also haven’t been any notice served to the students regarding applying for this scholarship and also no notice regarding the extensions have been served. This has left hundreds of researchers in lurch of information regarding the certainty of their scholarships and available time for them to finish their research.
Researchers haven’t received scholarships worth one lakh till date. They have noted that this is unfair and has made lives difficult to those researchers coming from economically weaker sections and farming families.
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It is becoming impossible for the research scholars to pay rents, hostel mess fees, semester fees, and are finding it difficult to fund their field work. They are not able to afford the research equipment as well. They have noted this in their letters in which they have shared their concern regarding the deteriorating quality of the research.
