By TCN News,
New Delhi: The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has released an amount of Rs. 120,41,64,000/- (Rupees One Hundred Twenty Crore Forty One Lakh and Sixty Four Thousand only) as central assistance to the Government of Andhra Pradesh under the centrally sponsored scheme of Post-Matric Scholarship to students belonging to the Scheduled Castes.
The anticipated expenditure during the year 2010-11 under this scheme is about Rs. 578 crore out of which, the committed liability of the State of Andhra Pradesh is about Rs. 258 crore. Apart from this, the State also has with it, an unspent balance of about 156 crore from the previous financial year (2009-10). An ad-hoc assistance of Rs. 47 crore was released to the State earlier this year. Therefore, with the current release of Rs 120.41 crore to the State, Andhra Pradesh has got the entire due amount for the current financial year for implementation of the post matric scholarship scheme.
It may be recalled that that in Andhra Pradesh, an amount of Rs. 452.47 crore was incurred during the year 2009-10 out of which a central assistance of about Rs. 212 crore was released for Post-Matric Scholarship to SC student. Nearly 6.10 Lakh students belonging to Scheduled Castes were benefitted with the Scheme in the State during the year.
The objective of the scheme is to provide financial assistance to the Scheduled Caste students studying at post matriculation or post-secondary stage to enable them to complete their
education.
The value of scholarship includes maintenance allowance, additional allowance for students with disabilities, reimbursement of compulsory non-refundable fees, study tour charges, thesis typing/printing charges, book allowance for students pursuing correspondence courses and book bank facility for specified courses, for complete duration of the course.