By TCN News,
New Delhi: Over seventeen thousand meritorious girls from minority communities were awarded scholarship by Maulana Azad Education Foundation (MAEF) during 2011-2012. According to a release from the Ministry of Minority Affairs on Wednesday, MAEF, an autonomous body under the aegis of the ministry, has awarded 17,700 scholarships to meritorious girl students studying in classes XI and XII under its Meritorious Girl Student Scholarship Scheme during 2011-12.
An amount of Rs. 21.84 crore was utilized for awarding these scholarships. Cumulatively 77,003 scholarships have been awarded to meritorious girl students under this Scheme since inception till 31st March 2012, for which an amount of Rs. 90.24 crore has been utilized. For 2012-13 a target of 20,000 scholarships has been fixed under this scheme for meritorious girls, said the ministry.
The corpus of MAEF, which stood at Rs. 100 crore in 2006-07, has now reached Rs. 750 crore with the infusion of Rs.200 crore in 2011-12. For 2012-13 an amount of Rs. 100 crore has been earmarked for release towards the Corpus of the Foundation. MAEF has provided financial assistance of over Rs. 153 crore to 1,167 NGOs for promotion of education since inception in 1989.