CHENNAI: A large number of eligible SC and ST students may have been left out of centrally-sponsored scholarship schemes, while weak verification and monitoring led to duplicate payments, questionable sanctions and delays, a CAG audit has found.
The audit of the Pre-Matric and Post-Matric Scholarship schemes found that among SC students, the proportion of eligible beneficiaries not covered under the Pre-Matric scheme ranged from 21% to 52% between 2019-20 and 2022-23 in the areas examined. Under Post-Matric, the non-coverage ranged from 20% to 29%. For ST students, the corresponding figures were 35%-55% and 30%-42%.
The Pre-Matric scheme covers SC students in classes 9 and 10 to check dropouts, while the Post-Matric scheme provides financial assistance to SC students pursuing education beyond Class 10, particularly those from poorer households.
The audit also found that an average 46% of schools in the eight sampled districts did not avail the Pre-Matric scheme between 2019-20 and 2021-22. For the Post-Matric scheme, the figure was 39%.
As many as 2,901 students who received SC/ST scholarships under the two schemes between 2017-18 and 2021-22 either dropped out or were excluded from the schemes the following year. The audit also detected duplicate payments, with around 160 SC beneficiaries receiving the State share twice and course fees being credited twice for 253 ST beneficiaries.
Verification of applications was another major concern. Of the 9,076 applications examined, 2,569, or 28%, did not have income or community certificates, raising questions over whether the eligibility of beneficiaries had been properly established.
The audit found that between 2021-22 and 2022-23, 507 institutions admitted 9,728 students under the management quota and claimed course fees of Rs 85,000 per student. The directorate sanctioned Rs 82.59 crore without verifying whether government quota seats had been filled first, which the CAG termed an incorrect grant of course fees.
Further, 36,510 scholarship payments amounting to Rs 7.28 crore were delayed between 2017-18 and 2022-23, with delays ranging from one month to over a year. Another Rs 1.61 crore meant for 3,530 beneficiaries was returned due to blocked, frozen or closed bank accounts and other banking issues.
In another instance, 60% of expenditure on scholarships for 2,576 beneficiaries under the state-funded Post-Matric Scholarship for SC students who had converted to Christianity was wrongly charged to central funds between 2021-22 and 2022-23. This resulted in an incorrect central contribution of Rs 3.64 crore.
The CAG attributed the lapses to inadequate software checks, weak monitoring, lack of social audits and failure to conduct prescribed inspections. It recommended proactive identification of eligible students, stronger verification mechanisms and real-time monitoring of scholarship payments.
how Pre- and POst-matric schemes help SC students?
The Pre-Matric scheme covers SC students in classes 9 and 10 to check dropouts, while the Post-Matric scheme provides financial assistance to SC students pursuing education beyond Class 10, particularly those from poorer households
