Staff REPORTER
ITANAGAR, Jul 10: A peaceful protest rally was organized by a mob of students in Itanagar today to express their resentment over delay in disbursement of scholarship amounts for the session 2023-24.
Braving the inclement weather conditions, hundreds of students from various colleges, universities and schools marched from Akashdeep shopping complex to the IG Park tennis court here and engaged in slogan shouting in support of their demand
The students sought immediate disbursement of the post-matric national scholarship (PMNS) and asked for a permanent solution to the recurring delays in disbursement of PMNS each year.
Speaking after the culmination of the rally, Charpo Taffo Sonam, who led the rally, blamed the officers of the Department of Higher and Technical Education for the delay.
“Scholarship for more than 7,000 students are still pending and now they (officers) are giving lame excuses of technical error. Actually, the officers of the Higher and Technical Education department failed to send the fund proposal to the Centre on time which resulted in the delay of the fund release from the Centre,” he claimed.
Meanwhile, the Directorate of Higher and Technical Education, in a press release issued today said that though scholarship was disbursed for 28,005 students on July 3, the scholarship for 7,164 students could not be processed ‘due to Aadhaar-bank related issues’.
Higher and Technical Education Director Alik Jongkey said, “The State Govt through the Department of Education has disbursed 1st batch of Post Matric Scholarships amounting to Rs 26.78 crores to a total of 8338 students. On receipt of 2nd and final installment fund from MoTA and State Govt amounting to Rs 95.057 crores in the dedicated bank account on 3rd July 2024. On the same day i.e. 3rd July 2024, the Department has disbursed the Scholarship amount to the 28005 students without delaying a single day, thereafter, the human intervention in payment process completes and automated computerized system starts working.
It is to inform that a total of 7164 students’ Scholarship could not be processed due to Aadhar - Bank account related issues which has already intimated to the concerned students by auto-generated SMS through NSP portal.
Although the department disbursed on 3rd July 2024, due to technical reasons in the NSP/DBT/PFMS system, the scholarships could not be credited within 48-72 hours as mandated for the Direct Benefit Transfer system. However, the Department has taken up the matter to NSP and PFMS, New Delhi for early resolution of the issues from Monday onwards and the matter was resolved on Tuesday night.”
The Director added that the scholarship amount was disbursed on July 10 and the amount will be credited to the students’ bank account by next few hours or more.
The Post Matric Scholarship is a Central scheme funded by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Govt of India and the nodal department in the State is SJETA Department.