Punjab’s all technical and higher educational institutes have agreed to fix maximum limit for their fees for Scheduled Caste (SC) students studying under the Post-Matric Scholarship scheme. The move is expected to benefit 2.79 lakhs SC students.
The decision came after certain anomalies and irregularities have been highlighted by the Central Government in the implementation of the scheme by the private institutions in the State in the last financial year.
The matter was discussed in the meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Sarvesh Kaushal with the representatives of various private universities, private technical institutes and private higher education colleges of the State.
Kaushal briefed the representatives that the objective of this scheme is to provide financial assistance to the SC students studying at post-matriculation or post-secondary stage to enable them to complete their education.
The representatives of the educational institutes agreed to adopt the fees structure as notified by state Department of Technical Education or Punjab Technical University for various technical or professional degree, diploma and certificate courses.
For the remaining courses, the lowest fees out of Punjab University, Punjabi University, and Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU) will be maximum that will be charged from SC students.
Chief Secretary asked all the education institutes to upload the details of beneficiaries of the scheme including name, aadhaar number, matriculation roll number, attendance record, results record etc on public portal for better transparency.
All the educational institutes involved in the scheme will also submit an undertaking to the Department of Welfare stating that there was no duplication in the beneficiaries’ list submitted to the state and also the beneficiaries’ details have been uploaded on the portal.
A special focus should be made on duplication in inter-state and intra-state beneficiaries.
For the purpose, Chief Secretary formed a nine-member scrutiny committee of the representatives of the Educational Institutes to be chaired by lovely Professional University’s chancellor Ashok Mittal to scrutinize the enrolment, attendance, marks, identification related data of the beneficiaries and submit the final report in next two months.
To improve transparency, it was decided to give access of Aashirwad portal — website for Post Matric Scholarship — to all stakeholders including education institutes concerned with the scheme.
Kaushal also asked the NIC to have meeting with the committee to improve the working and performance of the portal for hassle-free usage of the portal by the colleges.
It was also decided that all the colleges will introduce biometric attendance system in next three months so that bogus beneficiaries of the scheme can be eliminated.