AP to spend Rs. 135 crore on minority scholarships this year
By Mohammed Siddique, TwoCircles.net
Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh government would be spending Rs 135 crore on the pre-metric and post-metric scholarships during the current academic year. This was announced by the state minority welfare minister Syed Ahmadullah.
Launching the on-line system for the students to apply for the scholarships as well as the fee reimbursement, Ahmadullah said that Rs 123 will be meant for the post-metric scholarship while Rs 12 crore for the pre-metric scholarships.
“The new online system is being introduced to make the process transparent and curb the irregularities”, he said adding that the students had several grievances earlier that they were not getting their scholarships on time.
Several cases of corrupt practices and diversion of scholarships by the employees of the minority welfare department had come to light leading to their suspensions and transfers in the recent months.
“There was scope for irregularities in the manual system”, he said. The scholarship amount will be released through the Minority finance corporation.
Ahmadullah said that if needed, the state government will provide more funds for the purpose. The total budget of the state minority welfare department at present is Rs 177 crore, a lion share of which is being spent on the educational development of the minorities.
However there is increasing demand for allocation of more funds in the coming budget for minority welfare to at least Rs 500 crore.
Ahmadullah said that in addition to what the state government had earmarked for the scholarships, the central government had also provided another Rs 45 crore for the scholarships to the minority students.
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