Chandigarh, Dec 7 (PTI) The Punjab government has released Rs 92 crore from the budget provisions for 2024-25 under the post-matric scholarship for Scheduled Caste students scheme, minister Baljit Kaur said on Saturday.
Additionally, Rs 245 crore has been earmarked for scholarships for the 2024-25 fiscal, said the Punjab minister for social justice, empowerment and minorities.
Kaur stated the Punjab government released Rs 366 crore during the financial year 2023-24 to clear dues under the scheme for 2017-18 to 2019-20.
Of this, Rs 283.62 crore has already been disbursed to 1,008 institutions. The minister also assured people that the remaining institutions with pending dues will receive payments soon.
Kaur said Rs 92 crore has been released to clear dues for government institutions and students from Punjab studying in other states. Of this amount, Rs 59.34 crore has already been disbursed to 256 institutions and efforts are being expedited to distribute the remaining funds to other institutions, she said.
Rs 229.23 crore was released for students in the financial year 2023-24 and Rs 245 crore has been earmarked for scholarships for students in the current financial year 2024-25, the minister said.
Kaur alleged that between 2017 and 2020, the funds meant to be disbursed under the scholarship scheme for Scheduled Caste students were neither provided by the Centre nor paid by then Congress dispensation of Punjab.
“Due to such negligence by previous governments, colleges withheld the degrees of Scheduled Caste students,” she claimed.
The minister said that since AAP led by Bhagwant Mann came to power in Punjab, it has been making every possible effort to ensure that there is no disruption in the education of SC students.
She also appealed to the Centre to release its pending share under the scholarship scheme at the earliest to avoid any hindrance in the education of SC students.
Kaur also said that for the academic year 2024-25, nearly 2,31,000 students have newly registered under the scholarship scheme. PTI CHS NSD NSD
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