By TCN Special Correspondent,
Lucknow: In a drive to curb siphoning of funds, the state minority welfare department will undertake a verification drive of scholarships given to minority students. Decision to this effect was taken by the minister for minority welfare Anees Ahmed Khan alias Phool Babu in the review meeting of the department in Lucknow on Thursday.
“The verification will be done in all the districts. The concerned District Minority Welfare Officers (DMWOs) will verify that the scholarship has reached the deserving students,” stated Phool Babu. The verification drive will be conducted for pre-matric and post-matric scholarships given to minority students. The state and central government provides separate scholarships in both the categories.
“We do not want duplicacy in both the schemes. There were also reports that some of the institutions have not disbursed the scholarships to the students. All such things will be exposed. It is a continuous exercise and we will continue it regularly,” said Principal Secretary,
Minority Welfare, Jacob Thomas.
Taking another major decision, the department also decided to transfer the fee reimbursement scholarship amount in the student’s account. Earlier, the amount was transferred to institute’s account but it led to chaos with reports that several institutes did not provide the benefit to the students.
In other decisions during the review meeting the DMWOs were directed to shortlist the poor minority families for assistance in marriage of their daughters. The department provides Rs 20000 in such cases. There is a fund of Rs 12 crore earmarked from which Rs 5.15 crore has been disbursed.
The minister also directed for speeding up the multi-sectoral district development plan in 22 minority dominated districts of the state. There is provision for construction of ITIs, anganwadi kendras, handpumps, health centres and class rooms in schools in identified districts.