New Delhi, 08 April 2022 – After Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during a recent interaction with secretaries, received a suggestion to completely digitize the post-matric scholarship system for SC students, the plan to link Aadhar card with caste and income certificate has started to be implemented.
To begin with, this initiative will soon be implemented in the states of Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Karnataka. This move would reportedly benefit 60 lakh students.
| Action: Students’ Aadhar cards to be linked with caste and income certificates | Benefit: Students will receive scholarships directly in their accounts |
| States that will start this practice | Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Karnataka |
| Scholarship disbursal time, as per the latest announcement | End of August, November, February |
Aadhar Linking with Caste, Income Certificate – Faster and Direct-to-Account Scholarship Disbursals, amongst Other Benefits
1. Direct-To-Account Scholarship Disbursals – The linking of caste and income certificates with Aadhar will help in creating an automatic verification system, which in turn will help the government recognize the right scholarship beneficiaries. Through the automatic verification system, the government officials will just have to type the Aadhar number of a candidate belonging to any state to automatically receive the income and caste certification details.
As a consequence, Centre will be able to provide scholarships directly to the students belonging to the economically weaker sections (EWS) category, in their accounts. The task of scholarship distribution through this automatic verification system will first be conducted in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Telangana. Other states will then follow suit.
2. On-Time Scholarship Disbursals – Previously, there used to be no specific timeline for the disbursal of scholarships. However now, the months in which the chosen beneficiaries will receive scholarship has been set – end of August, November, and February.
3. More Transparency – The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment found out that the scholarship system for scheduled caste students in senior secondary school is laden with loopholes.
For instance, one bank account was found to be linked for both Class 10 and 12 beneficiaries. This clearly indicated that the educational institutions keep ownerships of such bank accounts and the students never get the scholarship aid directly. Due to this practice, the students are largely unaware of the benefits provided under the central schemes. Hence, the central verification system would ensure that the students do not only receive the scholarships directly but also have the knowledge of the source of this financial assistance.
This news also comes after a recent scholarship scam surfaced in Himachal Pradesh. On Friday, 1st April 2022, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) provisionally attached assets worth INR 4.42 crore, belonging to K.C. Educational and Social Welfare Society, Una, Himachal Pradesh. The assets have been attached under the anti-money laundering law (Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA)) in connection with an alleged post matric scholarship scam in the state. “During the probe, it was found out that the Social Welfare Society had purchased two plots and constructed a lavish building with the amount of the scholarships allotted for the students of SC, ST and OBC categories,” the Enforcement Directorate had confirmed. To read about this in detail, CLICK HERE.
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