The ministry of minority affairs (MMA) has received complaints that states like Andhra Pradesh and Bihar are denying to offer scholarship bank accounts to many muslim students.

In response to these complaints, a directive was handed to all State Chief Secretaries by MMA asking them to provide "no frills, nil balance" to students of minority community. The feedback obtained said that as many as 90,000 muslim students in Andhra Pradesh have been refused a scholarship bank account. A muslim student is mandated to have a bank account in order to apply for scholarships offered by MMA.

The scenario in Bihar is also of a similar nature. At a meeting with Minority Affairs Minister Salman Khursheed, SVP convener Mohammad Adil Hasan placed the number of students turned away by banks in Bihar at "not less than 50,000."

Mr Hasan has said that "Despite all the efforts, the bank officials are still unmoved. So kindly ensure that there is some alternative to the account opening norms because in the present scenario it is impossible for the students to open student accounts."

The July 28 directive sent to all Chief Secretaries of State read that the RBI circular on financial inclusion clearly states the need to offer banking facilities to "vast sections of population in order to achieve the objective of greater financial inclusion."

"However, it appears that in many cases these instructions are not being adhered to by the banks in letter and spirit. Thus a substantial number of scholarship applicants are being kept out of the ambit of banking services," the letter read.