Maha to raise income limit on scholarship for OBC students

The increment is upto Rs 6 lakh from the current Rs 4.5 lakh, the Assembly was informed today

Maharashtra Government has decided to hike the annual income limit of parents of non-creamy layer category OBC students seeking scholarships, to Rs 6 lakh from the current Rs 4.5 lakh, the Assembly was informed today.

A proposal to this effect would be placed before the Cabinet soon, Social Justice Minister Shivajirao Moghe told the House.

The hike in cap entails OBC students, whose parents' annual salary stands at Rs 6 lakh (current limit Rs 4.5 lakh) can now apply for various scholarships, thus brining more pupils under the scheme's ambit.

Moghe was replying to a supplementary question during discussion on a calling attention notice on applications for scholarships received by his department.

The Minister said a provision of Rs 2,607 crore has been made for the scholarships.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Suresh Shetty said under- performing private hospitals would be dropped from the list of medical facilities selected to implement the Rajiv Gandhi Jeevandayee Arogya Yojana (RGJAY), a State-backed scheme that provides free healthcare to members of low-income families.

He was speaking during a discussion on the scheme initiated through a calling attention notice. "We will empanel new hospitals. So far, 2,28,203 pre-authorisations have been given and 2,21,336 surgeries performed."

The government has blacklisted 12 private hospitals for taking money for treatment, he said. "There were 3,500 complaints of which 2,500 were related to money. The government has ensured the hospitals gave the money back to the patients."

Sanay Kute (BJP) said disempaneling the hospitals will not help much as they themselves don't want to be part of the scheme. He wanted the Government to make changes in the scheme to allow treatment of more than one patient in a family.

Shetty said the new scheme (RGJAY) was more effective than the previous one.

"Only 96,000 surgeries were conducted under the old scheme in the last 15 years, while under the new one, over one lakh surgeries had been performed in just one year," he added.