Ranchi, Oct. 28: Rural development minister Neelkanth Singh Munda and land and revenue minister Amar Kumar Bauri today held a three-hour joint janata durbar at the chief minister's secretariat, Kanke Road, where they heard out some 40 complaints, including those from eligible students denied scholarships.

Farmer's daughter Neha Kumari, a resident of Manatu in Ranchi and a student of BTech in Gandhi Engineering College, Odisha, since 2013, told the ministers that as she was poor and an OBC, she was eligible for a state scholarship.

"I applied for it two years ago when I joined BTech, but my application was neither rejected nor accepted," Neha, who came with father Macchendra Mahto, said. "I took Rs 4 lakh as an education loan from the bank as my father is a poor farmer who can't meet my study expenses. I desperately need the scholarship."

She added she had to visit Ranchi once every two months to prod social welfare department officials about her application.

Another technical education student hailing from Chanho but studying in Bengal, Naveen Kumar Sahu recounted why his scholarship amount did not get transferred to his account. Naveen's 2012 application for a scholarship was approved, the department released Rs 54,000 as scholarship to him for the financial year 2012-13, but the money did not reach his bank account as he had mistakenly omitted to mention the IFSC code in the final form.

"Immediately afterwards, I submitted six applications to the bank with IFSC code and requested the department to look into my problem. Nothing was done," Naveen said.

He added that while still battling this problem, a fresh one emerged. For the next financial year the department denied him scholarship, telling him that funds for 2013-14 were exhausted.

Minister Munda directed these complaints to social welfare department, ordering quick action in both.

"I found these students deeply worried about their future, as their scholarship application was either not entertained or the money was not released. I will speak to my cabinet colleague (social welfare minister Louise Marandi) in this regard," Munda said.

Ranchi-based Vinita Verma complained against a private teachers' training institute IGNOU Town School, affiliated to Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), which had its centre, now closed, at Old Jail Road.

She along with 104 other students had applied for a two-year teacher training certificate course in 2011 by paying a fee of Rs 24,000. "Our examinations were over in 2012 but the institute did not release our mark-sheet," Verma said. "When we contacted IGNOU we were told that institute had some outstanding dues due to which our mark-sheets were withheld. We were told that the institute had charged us Rs 10,000 extra. Because of all this, our careers are stalled."

Minister Bauri asked Vinita to lodge a police complaint against the management of the institute and assured her of police action against the authorities for criminal breach of trust and cheating.

A 70-year-old woman, Veena Devi, came all the way from Ratu to tell the janata durbar how in 2013 she had applied for the Ladli Lakshmi Yojana for her newborn granddaughter Radhika. "The district welfare office demanded documents and fresh applications around 30 times. I always complied. But yesterday, my application was rejected without any reason," she cried.

Bauri called Ranchi district social welfare officer N.N. Verma and sought explanations for the delay and dismissal, asking the bureaucrat to enrol the child under the scheme.