The Odisha government has found that a large number of scholarship applications are pending disbursal. This is in contrast with the government's initiative to bring more students into the higher education fold through the sanction of financial aid.
According to reports, 899 scholarship applications for the academic years of 2021-22 and 2022-23 are pending at the district welfare officers level. While 172 applications are pending for 2021-22, the number is 727 for 2022-23 and none of these applications have been recommended, validated, or forwarded to the department for disposal, as mentioned in a report by The New Indian Express.
Applications from 20 districts are pending and Ganjam and Gajapati districts make up for the maximum number of cases. Ganjam has the highest number of pending applications, which is 73 in 2021-22 and 280 in 2022-23, while Gajapati has 60 and 203 applications pending in the two respective academic sessions.
The Higher Education department provides three scholarships to students from poor socio-cultural and economic backgrounds, which are the e-Medhabruti scholarship, Vyasakabi Fakir Mohan Bhasabruti and Gopabandhu Sikhya Sahayata Yojana.
Under the Gopabandhu Yojana, financial assistance of Rs 20,000 per year is given to children of HIV/AIDS-affected parents, manual scavengers, single mothers, destitutes, Particularly Vulnerable Tribes (PVTs), and families without shelters. The aid is for helping them pursue graduation and post-graduation in general and technical courses across public and private institutions in the state.
In a letter to all the collectors and district magistrates, the Higher Education department on Monday, October 30, said a review of the implementation of the Gopabandhu Yojana showed a large number of scholarship applications pending disposal. This is against the fact that both 2021 and 2022 academic sessions are already over and the 2023-24 session has recently started.
"I waited for two months for the scholarship application to be validated after taking admission but when the money did not come, my father had to take a loan from a private moneylender to give the college fees," said Sumanta Maharana, an applicant of SKCG Autonomous College in Parlakhemundi. His father is a local sanitation worker.
Here's the total number of pending applications:
Ganjam - 280
Gajapati - 203
Bhadrak - 90
Cuttack - 54
The Higher Education department has directed all the collectors to complete the validation of pending scholarship applications within a month and submit their reports accordingly, as per The New Indian Express.
