Jammu, Mar 31 (IANS): The Jammu and Kashmir government has initiated various steps for strengthening the support to education of tribal students, officials said on Thursday.

The Tribal Affairs Department has disbursed highest-ever scholarship amounting to Rs 31.12 crore to tribal students during the current financial year.

The Tribal Affairs Department has also earmarked a budget of Rs 45 crore for scholarship in the financial year 2022-23.

The rise in scholarship budget is aimed at catering the proposed enhancement in scholarship amount for students of Class 1 to 8 in order to encourage primary education in rural areas.

Secretary, Tribal Affairs, Shahid Iqbal Choudhary said that education of tribal students is a top priority of J&K government and with keen interest of Lt Governor, Manoj Sinha the department has disbursed highest ever scholarship amounting to Rs 31 crore to support the tribal students at Post-Graduate, Graduate, Post-Matric and Pre-Matric level. This also includes many cases of previous two years pending due to various reasons.

The scholarship amount has been credited directly to the bank account of the students through PFMS mode.

It was informed that a total number of 12,580 students received scholarship amount to the tune of Rs 15.40 crore under Post Matric scholarship scheme while under Pre Matric scholarship scheme an amount of Rs 13.50 crore was disbursed to students studying in Class 1 to 8, and an amount of Rs 2.22 crore was credited in the individual bank account of 7,420 students of Class 9 and 10.