Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The Tribal Welfare Department has proposed standardising and simplifying scholarship schemes across departments. The proposal includes cutting eligibility categories from three to two and increasing scholarships for select groups.
It has already made a presentation before the Chief Secretary in this regard. The current eligibility categories for scholarships are: annual income up to Rs 2.50 lakh, between Rs 2.50 lakh and Rs 8 lakh, and over Rs 8 lakh. The Department proposal leaves out the category of annual salary over Rs 8 lakh.
The proposal vouches for equal scholarship for SC, ST and Denotified Nomadic Tribes (DNT) from Classes 9-12. At the same time, it stresses that students of OBC should get 50% of SC, ST, and DNT Scholarships. It speaks about the equivalence to the maximum scholarship sum.
Increase proposed
In scheme number 6175, which is a central government-sponsored pre-Matric scholarship for classes 9-10, with an income limit of Rs 2.5 L, the proposal seeks an increase in the scholarship of ST hosteller boy student from Rs 6,250 to Rs 7,000, and in that of a non-hosteller ST boy from Rs 3,000 to Rs 3,500.
This hike will bring an additional financial burden of Rs 6.95 crore on the state exchequer. Similarly, the proposed scholarship for an ST hosteller girl student is Rs 7,000 from the current Rs 6,250 and that for a non-hosteller girl student is Rs 3,500 from Rs 3,000. This will bring an additional financial burden of Rs 7.37 crore on the state exchequer.
