Mumbai: The state's Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mechanism of disbursing scholarships suffers from inordinate delays, with many of the beneficiaries receiving their scholarship money well after the academic year gets over, reveals a recent report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG).
The auditor scrutinised the implementation of centrally sponsored post-matric scholarship scheme for Other Backward Caste (OBC) and state-funded post-matric scholarship Vimukta Jati/Nomadic Tribe (VJ/NT) for the three-year period from 2018-19, when Maharashtra had first adopted DBT process, till 2020-21. It found that the government failed to disburse anywhere between 15% to 100% of the scholarship amount in the academic year for which it was sanctioned. In fact, the entire amount of scholarship money meant for 2020-21 was disbursed in 2021-22.
CAG had chosen to scrutinise these two schemes run by Maharashtra Government's Other Backward Bahujan Welfare Department, as they are among the state's largest scholarship programmes for marginalised students. The report, which was tabled before the state legislature on Friday, flagged a number of issues plaguing the state's MahaDBT digital platform through which scholarships are disbursed.
The report reveals that the state took an average of three to six months to release the scholarships as some students had to wait almost an entire year to have the first installment of money deposited to their bank accounts. Right from the generation of bills to the final credit to the applicant or their college, the entire process has been marred by delays.
"The time taken in the disbursement of funds under the two test-checked schemes indicated that the envisaged benefit of speedy disbursal of funds did not flow to the applicants/colleges despite the implementation of DBT," the report concluded.
In another alarming revelation, the scrutiny team found that the government paid an excess of Rs 53.41 Cr to various students and institutes in the three-year period. This excess amount was supposedly paid towards various additional heads of fees other than tuition fees of the institutes, even though the fees fixed by the state's Fee Regulating Authority (FRA) had all these heads included in it.
The report also points to the absence of a system of cross-verification on MahaDBT platform, as it is not integrated with other state government systems. This lacuna, according to the report, has caused a number of discrepancies. For example, CAG found that, in the three-year test period, a payment of Rs 93.29 Cr was made towards the students who had less than 75% attendance, a mandatory condition to avail the schemes. It also unearthed 15 instances where scholarship was awarded based on incorrect or ineligible caste certificates.
The auditor also found that, in contravention of the rules, many institutes were from recovering tuition fees from OBC and VJ/NT students before they receive scholarship money. "The students while applying for scholarship upload the fee receipt to get reimbursement of the fee into their bank account. Thus, the burden of paying the tuition fees falls initially on the students in violation of the Government Resolution. No records to ensure refund of fees to students is available," reads the report.
The activists said that these delays cause anxiety among applicants, and many of them even miss out on their scholarships. "The private organisations providing scholarships take around three months to release funds. By comparison, the government process is very slow. As there's not even a guarantee of getting scholarship approved, the candidates face an uncertain future. Due to this prolonged process, many students lose track of deadlines and are eventually deprived of the benefits," said Amir Nurle, President, Education Upliftment Forum, a Thane-based group that helps students through the scholarship process.
Priyadarshi Telang, Cconvenor, Dalit Adivasi Adhikar Andolan, a Pune-based non-governmental organisation, said that the lack of accountability is to be blamed for issues in scholarship schemes. "CAG report picks holes in MahaDBT and shows failure in design and development of online system even in age old schemes like Post Metric Scholarship, and complete absence of accountability of concern department or concerned authorities in delay or if scholarships are not received by students," he said.
