The daughter of the Minister of Maharashtra said that she will not accept the scholarship being offered by the state government for studying abroad. She denied the scholarship in light of the controversy erupted over her name in the list of beneficiaries.
Chief Minister, Devendra Fadnavis also sought an explanation from the Social Justice Minister Rajkumar Badole following the reports that her daughter's name is on the list of beneficiaries which are being sponsored by the government for pursuing their higher education from abroad.
Every year the social justice department gives foreign education scholarships to the students belonging to Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribe. This year, the list has the name of Shruti along with the sons of two other senior bureaucrats.
All these students technically fulfill the criteria but controversy sparked because of their privileged background.
Shruti is a graduate from IIT-Madras and defended her reason to seek the scholarship but amid all the controversy said that she will not accept the scholarship 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 minister's daughter?” she said.
“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. No university of India features even in top 200 varsities list of the same group. Is it my fault that I got selected for such university?" she asked.