Maharashtra: Applications Of 1.23 Lakh Students Pending For Post-Matric Scholarship
Pune, 1st February 2023: Under the Central Government Post Matric Scholarship Scheme, the facility of filling out online scholarship application forms has been made available on the website of MahaDBT for students belonging to Scheduled Castes and Categories.
However, it has come to light that despite applying online, the scholarship applications of 1.23 lakh students of Maharashtra have been kept pending by the colleges. Despite the social welfare department’s follow-up, the colleges have ignored it. As a result, the Social Welfare Department has warned of action against colleges that keep applications pending on a large scale.
Secretary of the Social Welfare Department Sumanta Bhange and Commissioner Dr Prashant Naranvare have reviewed this. A proposal to cancel the recognition of the college will be submitted to the government by issuing a notice to the colleges that have a large number of pending applications. Government of India post-matric scholarship is offered jointly by the Central and State Governments for students belonging to Scheduled Castes and Neo-Buddhist categories. Scheduled caste categories have been extended from time to time for filing new scholarship applications on the MahaDBT website. In 2022-23, 2.90 lakh applications of Scheduled Caste and Neo-Buddhist cadre have been registered online so far from the state. Among them, 1.42 lakh applications received by the Social Welfare Department have been approved, while 1.23 lakh applications are pending with the college itself, so the Social Welfare Department has not been able to take action on them. Also, 20,000 applications are pending at the student level. The investigation has shown that they have not submitted their application to the university.
If the students do not submit the scholarship application on time due to the college’s fault, the scholarship will be forfeited. All Assistant Commissioners of Social Welfare have been instructed to create awareness at the college level so that a maximum number of students can apply for the scholarship.
If the scheduled caste students are deprived of the scholarship, the responsibility will be fixed on the respective colleges. It will be proposed to the government for further action. The Commissioner of the Social Welfare Department said that strict steps will be taken in this regard.
In 2021-22, a total of 4.23 lakh students were given scholarships. Out of which, only 2.90 lakh applications (69 per cent) have been registered online by the end of 30th January 2023. Therefore, it has come to light that lakhs of students are still not registered for the Government of India scholarship. Out of those registered, one lakh 23 thousand applications are pending with the colleges themselves. Among them, the highest number of applications is 14 thousand in Pune district, 10 thousand in Aurangabad and Nagpur district, seven thousand in Nashik, six thousand in Nagar, Nanded, and Amravati, and more than four thousand applications are pending with colleges in Akola, Thane, Chandrapur, Beed districts.
