Punjab Government has disbursed Rs 280.81 crore on account of various scholarship schemes to Scheduled Caste students studying in various degree and professional courses for the year 2013-14 for non-refundable fee.
“Rs 12,95,789,287 (12.95 crore has been transferred into the bank accounts of as many as 2476 institutions and Rs 59,43,92,751 (59.43 crore) has been released to 1,76,413 students and rest of the amount would be disbursed within a month,” said Punjab Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes Minister Gulzar Singh Ranike.
He said that for the first time, the State Government has adopted a transparent and hassle-free approach to facilitate the beneficiary students under which students can apply for the scholarships online through the portal and inter departmental sanction is also achieved online.
Ranike said that parents’ having annual income of Rs 2.50 lakh would be eligible to get these scholarships. “2.64 lakh students of 2,000 institutions are being given scholarship for 2012-13 from out of the sanctioned amount of non-refundable fees. Rs 31.75 crore has also been released during 2013-14 for this purpose which would be disbursed after the lists of beneficiaries are received from the line Departments,” he added.
Minister added that Rs 230 to Rs 1,200 per month to the students have been disbursed as scholarship amount. Besides, Rs 1,600 for educational tours, Rs 1,600 for thesis writing and Rs 1200 for books was also being given by the Punjab Government.
“The demand of scholarship is sent to Welfare Department by the concerned institutions. Fees amount is sent though online bank management system to the concerned institutions and maintenance amount of the students transferred to their bank accounts,” he added.
Ranika said that online scheme under Ashirwad Portal has been launched from 2013-14 for Post-Matric for the students of SC and OBC. Under this scheme, students could submit their application online on their own and all process, sanction and payments have been made on line.
“3.65 lakh students have been registered with portal till now whereas 3.11 lakh applications have been received. As many as 2,06,927 students belonging to Scheduled castes and 68,429 students from OBC are registered with this portal which would get benefit during the current financial year,” he added.