To encourage students of Other Backward Classes (OBC) category to complete their higher education, Dehradun Social Welfare department has directly transferred the funds of tuition fee and scholarship to 2,140 beneficiaries’ accounts this year. “A total of 3,108 students studying at graduation and post graduation levels in Government and private colleges had applied for tuition fee and scholarship to the social welfare department,” said Dehradun Social Welfare Officer Ramavtar Singh.
Singh said that the State Government had released Rs 1.82 crore under the scheme this year and after verifying received applications, the department transferred the fund of tuition fee and scholarship to as many as 2,140 students this year in Dehradun.
According to him, OBC students whose family income is less than Rs one lakh per annum and are pursuing bachelor and post graduation degree (technical and non technical) in any government or private college can apply to the social welfare department.
Students of SC and ST category studying for bachelor and post graduation degrees in any Government or private colleges are also benefited under the scheme, he added.
Government pays tuition fees ranging from Rs 30, 000 to 60, 000 per annum for each student to private colleges for technical education and the entire tuition fees to government college students. Students of OBC category are given around 3000 per annum in scholarship, he added.
last year, students of various Government and private colleges under the banner of various students’ union had protested and demanded release of funds so that they could complete their higher education. The students of various colleges had alleged that they had not been receiving their scholarship for the last two years.
Pradeep Kumar, students’ leader, DBS (PG) College said that students pursuing different professional courses in private colleges had faced difficulties in paying their college fees due to this reason last year. Due to financial constraints, some of them could not pay their tuition fees and were not promoted to the next semester by the management of private colleges.
According to him, the government should funds regularly so that students belonging to OBC and SC/ST can complete their higher education.