MAHBUBNAGAR : The minority post-matric scholarship being implemented by the state government has turned out to be a curse for thousands of students who have applied for scholarships.
A total of 2,247 students are waiting for the release of the scholarships even though the 2015-16 academic year ended long back. As many as 7,090 students belonging to under graduate, post graduate and other professional programmes have applied for the scholarships.
Officials have estimated that they require `6.89 crore to pay the scholarships to the students. The students were supposed to get the scholarships before the end of the academic year.
However, authorities did little to release the funds before the conclusion of the academic year for reasons known to powers that be. This has created several problems to the students as many private college managements have forced their students to clear their fee dues.
This prompted many students to take loans to clear their fee instead of waiting for the release of the scholarships. After witnessing the plight of the students and receiving several complaints from them, the minority welfare department released `3.35 crore to clear the dues of 4,343 students in July, three months after the completion of the academic year.
The scholarships pertaining to the remaining 2,247 students have not yet been released by the authorities. This has cast a shadow on the future of students as their college managements have made it clear that they would not be allowed into the classrooms if they did not clear their dues.
District minority welfare office Executive Director Abdul Hameed said that they had released scholarships of those students who as per the funds available. He said that the amount of the remaining students would be paid as and when they get the funds from the state government.
“We are waiting for the release of funds to pay the scholarships of other students. We will credit the amount to the bank accounts of all the students once we get the funds,” he said.