Giving a Diwali gift to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes students, the Yogi Adityanath government increased their annual scholarships from Rs 2,250 to Rs 3,000 and decided to include more children by increasing the income limit of beneficiary families from Rs 2 lakh per annum to Rs 2.50 lakh.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced these decisions during a review meeting of Social Welfare department in Lucknow on Monday.
A spokesman said that the government not only increased the income limit of beneficiary families by Rs 50,000 per annum but also increased scholarship by Rs 750 per annum. Earlier, the annual scholarship was Rs 2,250 while now it will be Rs 3,000.
“Similar facilities will be extended to poor students of general category.
In the previous years, the government had discontinued scholarships of general category students studying outside UP, but the BJP government has revived the scholarship scheme,” he said.
The spokesman said that majority of the students, including those whose cases had been renewed, had been paid scholarships till October 2 while the rest would be paid scholarships by January 26.
Social Welfare department officials apprised the Chief Minister that in previous years, 20.88 lakh students were given scholarships while in the BJP rule, 23 lakh students had been awarded scholarships.
Regarding old age pension, the Chief Minister was informed that in 2016-17, 36.52 lakh people were given pension amounting to Rs 1748 crore, while in 2017-18 (during BJP regime), 37.47 lakh elders were given pensions amounting to Rs 1783 crore.
In the current fiscal, the government disbursed Rs 1,952 crore among 40 lakh pensioners.
Similarly, more beneficiaries have been included in National Family Welfare Scheme and CM’s Community Marriage Scheme during Yogi regime as compared to the previous Akhilesh Yadav government.