Amidst growing controversy over the post-matric scholarship for the SC students, the Punjab Government on Friday claimed that Rs 1,663.47 crore under the centrally-sponsored scheme is pending with the Union Government.
“Punjab Government is in regular contact with the Centre to ensure its speedy release,” said the state Social Justice, Empowerment and Minorities Minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot after presiding over a meeting with the senior officers of the department in connection with the post-matric scholarships.
Dharamsot said that the post-matric scholarship is 100 percent centrally-sponsored scheme and the amount of Rs 1663.47 related to the years 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 is pending with the Central Government. “For 2016-17, the amount is Rs 719.52 crore, Rs 567.55 crore for 2017-18, while Rs 376.40 crore for 2018-19,” he added.
The Minister said that out of Rs 327.39 crore released by the Centre in 2015-16, Rs 314.63 crore has been released by the department and utilization certificates have been sent to the Union Government whereas the bills to the tune of Rs 12.76 crore balance amount have been submitted at the treasury office for payment purposes.
“The present government has decided to conduct audit of the scholarship amount released during the tenure of the previous SAD-BJP regime to expose its failures. And till now, Rs 512 crore has been found to be of dubious nature in the audit of private educational institutions regarding post-matric scholarship,” said Dharamsot.
He said that there are a total of 3,606 educational institutions in the state out of which reports with regard to special audit of 2,588 institutions have been received. Of these 2,588 institutions, 1,967 are private while 621 are government.
The Minister added that payments, as of now, cannot be made to 920 out of these 2,588 institutions because audit party objections have been raised concerning the payment of claims made by these.
As regarding the rest of the 990 private educational institutions, payment of Rs 100.34 crore worth post matric scholarship has been made, he added.