January 25, 2008	Friday	Muharram 15, 1429

VEHARI, Jan 24: The much-trumpeted government’s stipend programme for the girl students has “crashed to a halt” as thousands of them have been denied the incentive for the last six months, it is learnt.

There are around 31,000 girls seeking education in the state-run schools who were being given Rs200 a month (every three months) before the caretaker setup took over. Thereafter, the stipend has not been disbursed to the students.

A group of girl students and their parents told Dawn that the stipend for July to September 2007 had not been delivered so far and none of the officials was taking responsibility for it or explaining reasons for delay in the provision of incentive.

They quoted an official of the EDO’s office as claiming that the amount required for disbursing stipend among the students had not reached Vehari so far and that was the reason for delay. They criticised the Punjab government for not giving the girls the promised amount even after a lapse of six months.

EDO (Education) Iqbal Naveed said the required amount (about Rs20 million) had reached the district and it would be given to the students through postal order during the next few days. He did not give the exact date of delivery.

Unavailability of the required funds had delayed the process of paying off the stipend, he said. Now the amount had been sent to the post offices concerned which would forward the dispatches to the students.

Jamil Mujahid, the post office in-charge, said the stipend amount for 5,400 girl students of Burewala tehsil had already been distributed and the remaining amount would be delivered during the next few days.