As the COVID-19 lockdown is disrupting the academic activities across the country, students and research scholars have asked the authorities to release the pending scholarships and fellowships.
Apart from University Grants Commission (UGC)'s UGC-JRF, CSIR, MANF, SC, ST and OBC research fellowships, students are also awaiting their merit scholarships from universities and colleges.
"Students are just left to die. No fellowships, no financial support yet. UGC should immediately disburse the fellowships in students' accounts. Declare fee waiver during the lockdown," Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student body leader Aishe Ghosh tweeted on Sunday.
A group of students said that the scholarships have been released till February, they are yet to get their March payments. Meanwhile, some students from JNU said they are yet to be disbursed fellowships from the beginning of the semester, and in some cases, for more than 7 months.
"Scholarships were already delayed in campus due to the protests happening the beginning of semester. Most of the applications were submitted late and as the students were about to get the payments, the varsity was shut due to the coronavirus outbreak," said a research scholar from School of Languages.
Read: 'Self-Plagiarism, Text Recycling Not Acceptable': UGC
He also said the process of offline application is another hurdle for the students.
"Due to the lockdown, students are not able to submit their scholarship applications and the authorities haven't paid any heed to the demands from teachers' associations and student bodies to make the application online," said another student.
Read: Petition Rejects 'Discriminatory' Online Examinations During Lockdown
NDTV tried to contact the Commission regarding the fellowship disbursal, but, the officials were unavailable to comment.
Exams and academic activities in universities and colleges across India are delayed or postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak which claimed more than 550 lives so far.
Read: UGC Constitutes Expert Committee To Enhance Online Education
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