Modi govt's scholarship scheme to help 4 crore SC students in 5 years: BJP
New Delhi: The Modi government aims to provide post-matric scholarship to over four crore students belonging to the Scheduled Castes category over the next five years, raising the number from existing 60 lakh beneficiaries, senior BJP leader and Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawarchand Gehlot said Tuesday.
He also told reporters the government's recent decision to raise the Centre's share in the scholarship amount to 60 per cent, and hike it progressively to 80 per cent, will result in a total expenditure of over Rs 59,048 crore by 2025-26 and ensure monitory assistance to the underprivileged students in time.
The Centre had spent only around Rs 1,100 crore annually in the last two years under an earlier formula, now changed by the Modi government, which had led to a rise in state's share, with almost half of the 36 states and Union Territories not getting any contribution from the Union dispensation, he told reporters.
Many states would not pay scholarship on time or use the fund for some other purposes resulting in increasing dropouts from SC students due to lack of scholarship, he said, adding this will change now.
Money will be now directly transferred to the student's bank account and the Centre will contribute only after the state has done so, he said.
"This is a historic decision. It will boost educational standards. No state has opposed our announcement," Gehlot, a Dalit face of the ruling party, said.
The percentage of students benefiting from the post-metric scholarship has risen to 23 from 17 in 2014-15, and the government is working to augment the number of beneficiaries to 27 per cent, he said.
Addressing the press conference, BJP general secretary Dushyant Kumar Gautam hit out at the previous Congress-led UPA government at the Centre, saying over 50 lakh fake beneficiaries were getting scholarships at the cost of Dalit students.
He alleged a scam in the Congress-ruled Punjab, citing lack of documents regarding the list of scholarship beneficiaries in the state.
Hailing the Modi government, he said it has worked to build memorials in honour of Dalit icon Bhimrao Ambedkar who, he alleged, never got due recognition from the earlier Congress regimes.
The Union Cabinet had last week approved changes in the centrally sponsored Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme to benefit more than four crore Scheduled Caste students in the next five years and approved a total investment of over Rs 59,000 crore for the purpose.
This decision, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said, will ensure greater educational access to youngsters belonging to SC communities.
Ensuring top quality and affordable education to our youth is an important focus area for our government," he had said in a tweet.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
