KOZHIKODE: Hundreds of students have been left in the lurch with the SC/ ST department not remitting their scholarship amount via e-grant. Students under SC/ST, OBC, OEC and financially backward sections are eligible for the grant which helps them in the remittance of fees, including admission, tuition, library and examination. Most of the students have not received their scholarship amount, and their examination fees for the last three semesters have not been paid by the authorities which in turn has delayed the issue of certificates.
Students say that it is not for the first time e-grants have been delayed. However, they realised this only after their certificates got delayed and others who were not eligible for the scholarships got it. “The examination fees of many students are pending for more than one year due to the delay in releasing the fund for the scholarship,” says Vijayasree, section officer of MCJ department, Calicut University.
E-grants are being processed according to ‘positive discrimination’ in which most needed students are considered first. As per this rule, the fund for SC/ST students would be sanctioned on a priority basis, but that is also delayed. “We are depending on the scholarship amount for most of our needs and it is difficult for us to give money from our hand,” said C.P. Divin, a MCJ student of Calicut University. Students under OBC/OEC and financially backward students are also facing the same issue.
According to officials at SC/ST development department, the project has been severely hit by financial crunch. “For SC/ST students, the lion share of the pending amount has been disbursed. However, there is no sufficient fund for OEC and OBC. Recently, '20 core was sanctioned for them and it will be distributed only after the elections,” says an official from the e-grants section of SC/ST department.
