Syed Omer Jaleel
Hyderabad: The Minority Welfare Secretary, Syed Omar Jaleel, has issued a directive to all Minorities Welfare Officers to be watchful and take strong measures to eliminate the involvement of middlemen in the execution of minority schemes.
This action comes in response to a report published in The Siasat Daily, which exposed the practice of extracting Rs 3-5 lakh from applicants under the guise of facilitating the approval of the Chief Minister’s Overseas Scholarship.
Secretary Minority Welfare, Omar Jaleel, has instructed all minority welfare officials to take stringent actions against middlemen who exploit candidates seeking benefits from various schemes.
He stressed that complaints have been received from candidates regarding the demand for money in exchange for the approval of the overseas scholarship scheme and the minority finance corporation’s relief scheme. He further said that officials should report the activities of middlemen to the police whenever they come across them.
Complaints have surfaced about the involvement of certain employees in the district minorities welfare offices colluding with middlemen. The notification for applications from minority candidates for the year 2023 has been issued, and the scrutiny of applications for the Fall-2022 session is currently ongoing. Jaleel highlighted that middlemen are attempting to deceive candidates into paying money for securing scholarships. He urged candidates not to rely on middlemen.
The selection process for scholarships includes assessing candidates’ performance in degree and postgraduate examinations as well as their scores in GMAT, GRE, TOEFL, IELTS, and PTE examinations.
Jaleel stressed that no candidate would receive preferential treatment, and District Minority Welfare Officers are required to closely monitor the scrutiny of applications to prevent any unauthorized interference. The government is overseeing all the activities related to the schemes to ensure transparency.
Additionally, in a separate incident, four individuals were apprehended at Haj House Nampally for attempting to solicit money from candidates for various schemes. Mohammad Imtiaz, the maintenance supervisor of Hajj House, reported the activities of these agents to the Abids police. The agents were found in possession of applications for different schemes.
Instances of agents operating within Hajj House have reportedly been increasing, and they have been requesting funds from applicants in exchange for assistance with approvals for sewing machines, the Rs 1 lakh relief scheme, Shadi Mubarak, Chief Minister’s overseas scholarship, and other benefits.
This post was last modified on August 30, 2023 2:46 pm