Min's daughter turns down scholarship following row

Mumbai: A day after social justice minister Rajkumar Badole was slammed by the opposition and social media for seeking scholarship from his own department for his daughter, Mr Badole’s daughter Shruti turned down the scholarship. She said on Thursday that she would not accept the state government scholarship to study abroad. Apart from Shruti Badole, the list of 35 beneficiaries for the scholarship this year features Sameer Dayanand Meshram and Antariksh Dinesh Waghmare, both children of senior government officials.

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis sought an explanation from Mr Badole following reports that his daughter Shruti’s name figured on the list of beneficiaries of government scholarship for pursuing higher education abroad, possibly over conflict of interest.

The social justice department gives foreign education scholarship to students from scheduled caste and scheduled tribes. Shruti, a graduate from IIT-Madras, defended her decision to seek scholarship, but added she would not accept it now. “The course I am pursuing at the University of Manchester (UK) does not have any scholarship. Hence, I decided to apply for scholarship offered by the government. Is it my fault that I happened to be the minister’s daughter?” she said. Her father had recused himself from the selection process, she claimed.

The state administration itself had come up with a government resolution in 2015 allowing SC/ST students from any income background to apply for state scholarship, provided the applying university is among the top 100 varsities as per QS World University Rankings.

Shruti said she had decided against taking education loan as her family was paying installments for having taken such a loan for her brother. Meanwhile, Mr Badole and the two bureaucrats, whose sons bagged the scholarships, said in an official statement that the selection was based on merit.