New Delhi: The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has brought up crores of arrears on part of the central government with regards to post-matric scholarship with the Ministry of Finance. Finance minister Arun Jaitley has taken note of the arrears, which have accumulated over the years, and deliberations are on to clear all of it in one go.
Sources at Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment said that the ministry has brought up the issue of arrears with Jaitley who seemed keen on clearing it before the year ends. “The arrears are of Rs 6824.51 crores and our post-matric budget is Rs 3,000 crores. While the FM seems to be keen to clear it all together, a lot of things need to be looked at,” the source added.
The maximum arrears are from Tamil Nadu (Rs 1547.56 crore) followed by Uttar Pradesh at Rs 1490 crore, Maharashtra (Rs 1433 crore) and Punjab (Rs 835 crore). The Post-Matric Scholarships, introduced through Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar’s initiative as a Member of the Viceroy’s Executive Council in 1943 and extended to STs after Independence, is an open-ended scheme.
The proportion of SCs and STs in the relevant age-group in higher education is less than the proportion of the population in the relevant age-group of the Socially Advance Castes (SACs), which includes the non-SC, non-ST, non-SEdBC castes (NSCTBCS) in higher education.
Out of the total budgetary outlay for 2018-19, the outlay for Central Sector Schemes and Centrally Sponsored Schemes is Rs 10, 14,450.79 crore. Out of this, the outlay for SCP/allocations for welfare of SCs at not less than 16.6% ought to be not less than Rs 1,68,398.83 crore, but only Rs 56618.50 crore (5.58% instead of 16.6%) has been provided; and the outlay for Tribal sub Plan/allocations for welfare of STs at not less than 8.6% ought to be not less than Rs 87247.77 crores, but only Rs 39134.73 crores (3.86% instead of 8.6%) has been provided.
Comments
0 comment