Private college students in a fix as Centre delays disbursal of central scholarships: Chandrashekhar Azad

NEW DELHI: Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) MP Chandra Shekhar Azad today urged the minister of social justice and empowerment Virendra Kumar for timely payment of central scholarships. He also suggested developing a portal for scholarships at the central level for details and registering grievances.

In a letter August 19, 2024, Chandra Shekhar Azad said: “...the only support for the poor students studying in private colleges is the scholarship received from the Center and due to delay in disbursal of scholarships for a longer period, they are unable to pay the tuition fee. The scholarship share of the Center is 60 percent and it is not being allotted to students.”

To ensure timely disbursement of scholarships, the member of Parliament (MP) suggested developing a central-level portal on which information about all the scholarships is made available for students. He also recommended adding a facility for students to register complaints related to scholarship.

He further requested the ministry to direct the concerned authorities to allot scholarships to the students as soon as possible and implement the suggestions.

Also read After NEP 2020, scholarship and research fellowship funds declined by over Rs 1,500 crore

The Government of India offers several scholarships to aid students from socially and economically backward categories. However, the fund allocation for scholarships and fellowships have seen a drastic drop of Rs 1,000 crore in the past four years. The new schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Uchchatar Shiksha Protsahan (PM-USP) and a bundle of existing schemes for college and university students, are receiving about Rs 500 crore less than in the years prior to NEP, analysis of budget estimates over the years reveals.

The Centre also scrapped scholarship schemes such as the Maulana Azad National Fellowship (MANF) for minority students and the Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana (KVPY) for youths interested in pursuing general science courses.

The Azad Samaj Party also extended their support to the candidates affected by the 69,000 teacher recruitment reservation scam and said that they have always stood with the struggling aspirants since the beginning.