Scholarship eludes 553 eligible OBC students in Chandigarh

Naina Mishra

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 10

On the one hand, the Central Government talks about the welfare of the downtrodden by way of a number of scholarship schemes, while on the other, it has been asking states to limit the number of beneficiaries under the Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme for OBC students.

The audit and inspection report on the accounts of the Director, Higher Education, Chandigarh, for 2017-18, assessed under the RTI Act, has brought forth startling facts about scholarship schemes sponsored by the Centre.

Surprisingly, a total of 553 students could not be benefited as the ministry did not sanction a sum of over Rs 2 crore (Rs 30,19,000 for 2015-16, Rs 1,07,08,000 for 2016-17 and Rs 79,69,000 for 2017-18).

When the “non-disbursement of scholarship to eligible candidates under the centrally sponsored Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme for OBC students” was pointed out in the audit, the department said, “The ministry has requested to limit the number of scholarships to the extent of central assistance plus the state’s committed liability as it is a limited fund scheme and it is not possible for the Central Government to meet the full demands of the state government.”

However, the auditor did not find the reply of the department “tenable”, as stated in the audit report.

A total of 517 students were declared eligible for the scheme for 2017-18. The actual requirement for these beneficiaries was Rs 1,65,00,000, of which Rs 85,31,000 was received by the Director, Higher Education, Chandigarh, and 323 students were benefited.

For 2016-17, 616 students were declared eligible and the actual requirement for these beneficiaries was Rs 2,02,00,000. The ministry released a grant of Rs 92.87 lakh to the department, from which only 349 students could be benefited.

Similarly, for 2015-16, 477 students were declared eligible and the actual requirement for these beneficiaries was Rs 1,15,00,000. The ministry released a grant of Rs 84.81 lakh to the department, from which only 349 students could be benefited.

“A sum of Rs 2,16,96,000 is pending with the ministry because of which 553 (128 for 2015-16, 231 for 2016-17 and 194 for 2017-18) could not be benefited under the above scheme,” read the audit report.

The objective of the scheme is to provide financial assistance to OBC students to enable them to complete their education. The value of scholarship includes maintenance allowance, reader charges for blind students, reimbursement of compulsory non-refundable fee, study tour charges, thesis typing /printing charges and book allowance for students pursuing correspondence course, for the complete duration of the course.

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