News by Mounesh Vishwakarma
Daijiworld Media Network—Bantwal (RD)

Bantwal, Feb 11: The student’s name is Shweta (name changed for anonymity).  She is a student of this taluk, who was selected for the National Means Cum Merit Scholarship (NMMS) scholarship during 2010, which was awarded by the union government for talented students.  However, the irony is that the scholarship that should have been given to her by the Department of State Educational Research and Training (DSERT) has not been handed over to her so far.

The union Ministry of Human Resources and Development (MHRD), with a view to encouraging economically-weaker talented students, selects the students by organizing national talent contests every year.  It conducts NMMS examination for this purpose. 

Despite this process going on smoothly every year, the students who have passed the exam do not get their scholarship.  It’s not the case of one student in the taluk.  As per the information gathered, over 7,246 students in the entire state who have passed this exam are yet to get their scholarship.  The 1,635 students who had passed the exam during 2008, were sanctioned Rs 90,000 and the balance amount is yet to be released.  The 3,170 students who have passed the exam in 2009 and 2010 are waiting for their scholarship.

How Much is the Scholarship Amount?

The students who qualified for scholarships should have been awarded Rs 500 per month that amounts to Rs 7,000 per year.  The scholarship project aims to award Rs 500 per month to students till II PUC, who qualify in the exam.  The significant project by MHRD to support the economically-weaker talented students faced setbacks mainly due to technical difficulties in reaching the benefits.  The office of Block Education Officer (BEO) distributes the application forms to students and conducts taluk and district level examinations and shortlists the students to avail NMMS scholarship.  However, it’s an irony that after all this process the eligible students do not get rewards.

Technical Difficulty:

The students who had passed in the exam during 2008 were awarded scholarships through their SBI account.  Meanwhile, thousands of rural students who have no bank accounts, were in utter chaos as some of them received their scholarship by demand drafts.
Later, it was made compulsory to open an account with SBI branch for those who passed the NMMS.  Now, the students who were chosen for the scholarships in 2010 and 2011 are waiting for their entitlement after opening their bank accounts.

When this reporter contacted DSERT office in Bangalore, to seek information about scholarships that have not been released since two years, officer Chandrika informed that the scholarship amount will be credited to the accounts of respective students within two months. There has been a delay since the office of MHRD in New Delhi directly remits the amounts to the respective accounts of students.  She informed that the remittances to students in other states are in progress.