URTSC asks DSW to probe complaints into scholarship disbursal

Uttarakhand Right to Service Commission today asked the Directorate of Social Welfare to conduct a probe into complaints of eligible polytechnic students from a college in Roorkee not getting scholarships despite availability of funds in 2016 and 2017.
It also asked the district magistrates to have such applications examined in their areas by the chief development officer and ensure that no student entitled to a scholarship was denied the facility in the future due to procedural lapses.
The directive was issued by the commission head, D S Garbyal, after looking into the complaint of a polytechnic student who alleged that he did not get his scholarship in 2015-16 and 2016-17 due to recklessness of authorities of his college and the social welfare department, Haridwar.

During the course of a hearing, it emerged that the polytechnic college had sent 330 applications from eligible students in 2015-16 to the social welfare department out of which only five applicants from ST category got scholarships despite availability of adequate funds with department which subsequently surrendered it.
The social welfare department claimed that the majority of applications received online could not be properly logged into as they were in draft mode and were therefore rejected.
Noting that only 163 applications for scholarships were sent by the college in 2016-17, the commission asked the social welfare directorate to have an inquiry conducted into all such anomalies during 2015-16 and 2016-17 by a competent official and inform the commission about it by November 30.

It also asked the district magistrates to have such applications, if any, examined in their areas by the chief development officer well in advance.