'Over 85 lakh students benefitted from scholarship schemes'

Over 85 lakh students have benefited from scholarship schemes meant for the youth from the minority communities during the last fiscal, Rajya Sabha was informed today.
Union Minister of State for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said this in Rajya Sabha in reply to questions pertaining to measures taken by the government on such schemes.
According to the ministry, government's pre-matric, post-matric and merit-cum-means based scholarships benefited a total of 74,96,593, 9,05,818 and 1,38,770 students (totaling 85,41,181) respectively during that fiscal year.
Naqvi said the government runs multi-media campaigns to spread information about the drive for the awareness of students from minority communities.

He said from 2015-16, students can apply online to seek benefits under the three schemes and added the scholarships are required to be disbursed under direct benefit transfer (DBT) mode to bank accounts of youngsters.
"Moreover, under simplified procedure, students can submit self-declaration/self-certification and self-attested copies of documents in respect of religion certificate, annual family income, mark sheets, etc.
"Periodic regional reviews are undertaken with state government/Union Territories administrations in addition to regular video conferencing," the minister said.