Ministry to utilise this fiscal scholarship funds earmarked

In view of the delay in disbursal of scholarship to students due to technical difficulties, the Centre has, in a "rare step", allowed the Minority Affairs Ministry to use funds earmarked for 2015-16 in this financial year through an alternative mechanism.
The government has taken the step to ensure disbursal of scholarships due in 2015-16, acknowledging technical difficulties faced by students on the newly-launched National Scholarship Portal, the Ministry said in a statement.
The Ministry had earlier decided to pass on scholarships via direct benefit transfer (DBT) mode through the portal to address the problems students faced in timely reception of full scholarship due to involvement of many channels in the process of disbursement.

"The government has taken a rare step for the first time by allowing the Ministry to use scholarship funds earmarked for 2015-16 in the next financial year through an alternative mechanism," the statement said.
According to the Ministry, the scholarship disbursement picked up pace February onwards and about 39 lakh minority students have already received scholarship amounts.
The Ministry distributes scholarship to over 80 lakh students every year, it said.
The Ministry said it has released an additional fund of Rs 5.75 crore to the University Grant Commission for Maulana Azad National Fellowship to meet the requirement of pending fellowships of minority students during 2015-16.

Altogether, the Ministry has released Rs 55.43 crore for the fellowship scheme during 2015-16.