All pre-matric/post-matric scholarship benefits till 2023-24 have been provided to Scheduled Caste students, Minister for Finance K.N. Balagopal has said.
He was replying to a submission by V. Sasi, MLA, in the Assembly on Sunday on timely distribution of e-grant for post-matric Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe students in the State. Mr. Sasi had sought arrangements to ensure that the financial assistance that they were to get be given that year itself.
Only students from Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe families with an annual income of ₹2.5 lakh or below alone got scholarship benefits as per the Centrally sponsored scheme.
This year, an amount of ₹73 crore had been earmarked as the State share for sanctioning the scholarships to Scheduled Caste students. As this amount was wholly utilised, an additional ₹43.77 crore had been earmarked.
As an annual income limit of ₹2.5 lakh was fixed as per the scheme, the State government earmarked additional funds to provide assistance to all eligible students without considering income limits. For this, ₹150 crore was set aside in the Budget, ₹110 crore sanctioned as additional funds, and ₹25.19 crore sanctioned through supplementary demand for grants, taking the total to ₹285.19 crore.
An amount of ₹8 crore as the State share for the scholarship and ₹166 crore for schemes run directly by the State had been allocated. Besides this, ₹18 crore had also been earmarked under the non-Plan head.
Together, ₹594.15 crore had been sanctioned this year for providing scholarships to Scheduled Caste students.
The whole amount needed to sanction the claims for the 2024-24 year had been earmarked, the Minister said.
The total amount sanctioned as the State share of the Centrally sponsored scheme and the State scheme share since 2021-22 is as follows: 2021-22 – ₹456.32 crore; 2022-23 – ₹360.76 crore; and 2023-24 – ₹505.75 crore.
The income limit of ₹2.5 lakh was in place for Scheduled Tribe scholarships too, Mr. Balagopal said. The State government provided full assistance to students whose family income limit was above the limit.
An amount of ₹71.82 crore had been allocated as the State share of the Scheduled Tribe pre-matric/post-matric scholarship and the share of the schemes run directly by the State.
