Over 2 lakh Scheduled Caste students in Punjab go without scholarship all because of portal snag

Tribune News Service

Rajmeet Singh

Chandigarh, February 6

The fate of over two lakh Scheduled Caste (SC) students enrolled with over 1,000 private technical colleges in the state under the SC Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme hangs in balance following a technical glitch.

Over Rs 145 crore meant to be released into the accounts of the intended beneficiaries for the academic year 2022-23 has been delayed due to a technical glitch in the Public Financial Management System (PFMS) portal of the Centre.

The delay is bound to affect the release of scholarship fee to the students for the academic year 2023-24 as the utilisation certificate cannot be raised by the state. The demand for scholarship is raised by the state in June every year.

Not only the students, over 1,000 technical institutions, where the students are studying or have passed out, are at their wits’ end as the amount also includes the institution fee component that the students has to return to their institutions.

Officials in the state’s Department of Social Justice and Empowerment blame the Centre for the glitch. “We have already deposited over Rs 55 crore in two instalments in the Centre portal. But the money is not traceable. The Centre has to add approximately Rs 90 crore before releasing it into the accounts of the students. We have repeatedly taken up the issue with the Centre, but to no avail,” said a senior functionary privy to the development.

Under the new SC Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme started in 2020-21, the Centre and the state share the burden in the 60:40 ratio. The state has to release its share before the Centre releases its. Then the latter credits the scholarship amount into the students’ accounts. Of the total scholarship amount, 10 per cent is retained by the students as maintenance fee and remaining goes to the institutions.

Punjab’s Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Baljit Kaur said the technical issue with the portal would be solved within two days.

Flagging the issue, the Joint Association of Colleges has stated that there was a huge backlog of fee disbursement under the scheme for 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23. The students of current session, i.e., 2023-24, will pass out in May. Some of them had not paid their fee for the three previous sessions and now there would be pendency of fee for 2023-24 as well.

“When the students get the fee after passing out, some of these will not remit their fee to the institutions, affecting the fiscal health of the institutions. Over 60 per cent students have already passed out. The institutions will be the worst affected in this scenario,” said Manjeet Singh, patron of the association.

A similar technical glitch in the transfer of scholarship money to the accounts of around 66,000 SC students last year had put the department in a tizzy. Instead of taking the 60 per cent share from the Central funds, the PFMS portal of the Central Government deducted the entire 100 per cent amount from state’s funds for 2022-23.

Centre to pay Rs 90 crore

We have already deposited over Rs 55 crore in two instalments through the central portal, but the money is not traceable. The Centre has to pay its share of Rs 90 crore before releasing it into the accounts of students. We have repeatedly taken up the issue with the Centre, but to no avail. — A senior functionary, dept of social justice and empowerment

Bone of contention

In 2020-21, the Centre restarted the scholarship scheme with a sharing ratio of 60:40 between it and the state. Prior to 2016-17, the scholarship revenue was contributed by the Centre and the state in 90:10 ratio.

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