The Danilovgrad Committee of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) announced that, on the eve of the session of the Municipal Assembly, they submitted an amendment to the Proposal for a Decision on Amendments to the Decision on the Budget for 2023, with which they requested an increase in student scholarships, but that the amendment was not adopted "thanks to the councilors of the government , consisting of PES-Democrats-DF-URA".
"If the amendment had been adopted, student scholarships, which today amount to 100 euros for basic and 120 euros for master's studies, would amount to 200 and 240 euros respectively. That this attitude of the government councilors is meaningless is supported by the fact that there is already enough in the account for scholarships of money that could cover the increase in them until the end of this year, while the increase in scholarships for the next year would amount to only 0.5% of the total budget of the Municipality," the announcement states.
DPS said that with this amendment they wanted to continue positive practice, since, as they said, Danilovgrad was one of the first municipalities in Montenegro to introduce student scholarships, and that their amounts during all previous years were among the highest in the country.
"Through this amendment, if it had been listened to by local authorities, we wanted to send a clear message to young people, Danilovgrad students, that the city appreciates the extraordinary results they achieve within the framework of their educational process, that we are proud because they have sprung up in this city and because they live in this city and we care about keeping them here so that they can implement their knowledge and skills in our municipality for the sake of its overall development and progress. Also, given that inflation is rampant in Montenegro and that it affects modest student budgets , we thought that increasing student scholarships would mean some sort of improvement in the economic position of the student population from Danilovgrad, but also a demonstration of the responsible approach of local councilors to one of the problems faced by young people," the DPS said.
The increase in student scholarships, as they add, was supposed to serve, among other things, as a "stimulating mechanism for Danilovgrad pupils and students to make additional efforts to achieve great results in terms of education, which are a source of pride", not only for Danilovgrad, but also for Montenegro.
"However, the Danilovgrad local government, by finding reasons to reject the amendment during the entire session, which were refuted with valid arguments, showed where young people are on their agenda. And don't bother the Danilovgrad public, gentlemen from the government, with stories about how they will scholarships be increased next year in order to justify your action today. Do not, because once again in the local parliament you demonstrated classic politicking, all for the reason that you could not bear that the initiator and proposer of this amendment was the DPS," the statement said.
DPS said that they will submit the same amendment again, when the budget for 2024 is discussed.
"You deserve that we protect your best interests through work in the benches of the local parliament and continuously work to improve your position on every level, including on the economic level," it concludes.
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