Agartala, September 16: Amid concerns raised from various quarters regarding a significant number of tribal students in Tripura being denied post-Matric scholarships for the current academic year, the Tripura Welfare Department, responsible for disbursing these scholarships, has addressed the issue.
They clarified that less than one percent of applicants have yet to receive their scholarships, and among them, some had submitted incorrect bank details, while others were suspected to be fake applicants.
S. Prabhu, the director of the Tribal Welfare Department, provided this information during a press conference on Saturday, attended by Saswata Sen, joint director, and other senior officials.
The post-Matric scholarships for tribal students are sponsored jointly by the Government of India and the Government of Tripura, in a 90:10 ratio, respectively.
The director disclosed that for the educational year 2022-23, a total of 37,832 eligible students had applied through the National Scholarship Portal, and funds had already been transferred directly to the bank accounts of 37,323 students. However, 509 students are yet to receive their scholarships, primarily because some of them had incorrectly uploaded their bank account numbers. Additionally, the central government has withheld some names suspected of being fake, pending further inquiry.
Prabhu mentioned that the deadline for applying for the scholarship through the portal had been extended eight times to ensure maximum coverage of tribal students under the program. But, achieving a 100% target remained elusive.
Meantime, Saswata Sen, joint director of the Tribal Welfare Department, noted that similar issues exist in the pre-Matric scholarship program for tribal students in class nine and ten, though the situation is comparatively better than the post-Matric program.
He also explained other contributing factors leading to delays in fund disbursement, with late applications from students being a prime reason.
He added that in previous years, the National Scholarship Portal had to extend its deadline eight times due to such delays.
