The Centre has sanctioned a special fund of Rs 250 crore to clear the backlog of scholarships given to about 2.44 lakh students — that includes research scholars in top institutes — in various institutions of higher education. Union Human Resources Development Minister Prakash Javadekar, on Wednesday, announced that scholarship amounts will now reach to all eligible students by the end every month.
"There have been repeated complaints that the scholarships are not being disbursed timely by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE)," the Minister said. "So, we have issued a special grant of Rs 250 crore and the entire backlog has been cleared and from now on the recipients will get their fellowships credited on time," he said in a press conference in the capital.
The UGC and the AICTE offer various grants to students which include merit-cum-means-scholarship, Junior and Senior Research Fellowships, Jammu and Kashmir scholarship, GATE scholarship and Ishan Uday and single girl child scholarships.
The HRD Minister also added that every year the scholarship amounts offered to students have doubled since 2014 when the present government came into power and now stands at nearly Rs 4000 crore every year. Meanwhile, a group of researchers met the minister Wednesday morning to raise the demand of increasing the scholarship amount which is currently Rs 25,000 at entry level. On their demands, said Javadekar, the government is "positive".
