Mangaluru: Minority welfare department in Dakshina Kannada has disbursed scholarships worth Rs 61.2 crore to students under various schemes, officials said at a review meeting on the Prime Minister’s new 15-point programme at the deputy commissioner’s office here Thursday.
The amount includes Rs 3 crore under the Vidyasiri scheme. The funds covered 75,513 student applications, the department said. As a result, only the State Scholarship Portal (SSP) is currently operational, he said.
Manjunath R, office superintendent, minority welfare department, Dakshina Kannada, said scholarships for applications from the previous academic year had been disbursed. “A total of Rs 61,20,24,832 in scholarships, including Rs 3,07,35,000 under the Vidyasiri scheme, has been disbursed in Dakshina Kannada across 75,513 students,” Manjunath said. However, the National Scholarship Portal (NSP) has been kept on hold pending an inquiry into alleged fake student entries.
He said undergraduate courses were excluded after the Christian Development Corporation was bifurcated from the Karnataka Minorities Development Corporation (KMDC). “Following the bifurcation of the Christian Development Corporation from the KMDC, the government order was amended to exclude undergraduate degrees, as India already has several good degree colleges,” Manjunath said. Responding to demands to include undergraduate courses, he said the district authorities had no power to alter the eligibility criteria. The circular must be modified by the Karnataka Christian Development Corporation in Bengaluru,” he said.
“Any amendment to include undergraduate degrees in the overseas loan scheme has to be made at the state-government level.
Because a private university uploaded mismatched academic-year data, responding to complaints about delays in scholarship disbursement, Manjunath said a technical problem arose.
First-year students had been shown as second-year students, while second-year students were listed as third-year students, according to the department. He said the university has been instructed to correct the data on the portal.