In yet another heartbreaking news, a 20-year-old engineering student, Rosy Behera, has been working as a daily wager for the last three weeks to pay her college fees.
She has been working on a road project under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) near her home in Odisha’s Puri, so that she can pay her college dues of Rs 24,500 to obtain her diploma certificate.
Rosy has been working on the project since the past three weeks or so now, digging fields, collecting and carrying soil on her head for making a road in her village, all to earn a meagre sum of Rs 207 per day.
“After completing my diploma in Civil Engineering in 2019, I am not able to arrange funds for my Bachelor’s degree. I also have to pay an outstanding amount of Rs 24,500 to the diploma school,” Rosy Behera told news agency ANI.
After completing her diploma in 2019, Rosy got to know from a private engineering college that she could pursue a B.Tech program on a government scholarship. However, she was told that her tuition fees would be taken care of by the government as she came from a Scheduled Caste (Harijan) but not the hostel and college bus fee.
She told ANI, “I was denied my diploma certificate by the college authority, despite my repeated request to college authorities and local MLA. I could not find other options to clear my hostel dues and bus fees. As I am a Harijan girl, the government was paying my entire college fees. But hostel and Bus fees were not included in it. Even our house is constructed on government land. As I passed matric with a good number, I got a scholarship from the government and joined Barunei Institute of engineering and technology (BIET) Khordha.”
The Block Development Officer, Delang Block Sheshdev Rout assured help to Rosy and promised to help her with her dire situation.
“Rosy couldn’t pay her college fees because of the financial situation. She hasn’t received a diploma certificate. We will report it to the administration to help her” he said.
