The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs today gave its nod for revision and continuation of a centrally-sponsored scheme to provide post-matric scholarship for students belonging to Other Backward Classes (OBC) from financial year 2017-18 to 2019-20, an official statement said.
Revision in the Post-Matric Scholarship to the OBC Students (PMS-OBC) scheme to ensure effective implementation and better monitoring of the schemes include increasing annual parental income from Rs one lakh to Rs 1.5 lakh, earmarking 30 per cent of the allocated funds for girl students and 5 per cent for students with disabilities.
It also includes disbursement of scholarships through Aadhaar-linked bank accounts, according to the statement.
Since the scheme is funds-limited, central assistance shall be released according to the National Allocation. The concept of Committed Liability will not apply to states and Union Territories for releases.
The estimated cost of the scheme will be Rs 3,085 crore, the statement stated.
The revised scheme will cover larger numbers of eligible and deserving poor OBC students who will be able to pursue higher studies. It will also ensure effective implementation, achieve de-duplication and enhanced monitoring.
The PMS-OBC, a flagship scheme of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, has been in operation since 1998-99. It enables approximately 40 lakh OBC students to pursue higher study after class 10 every year.
