22.13L students covered under Prerana

BHUBANESWAR:  Disbursement of scholarships to ST, SC and other backward class students has been made timely and transparent manner through introduction of centralised disbursal system on DBT mode.
A dedicated scholarship management unit has been instituted in the ST and SC Development Department for regular monitoring of the system. As many as 22,13,868 students have been covered under scholarship programme in 2016-17, including 16,65,706 students under pre-matric programme and 5,48,162 under post-matric programme. 

Of the total students, around 11,56,963 belong to ST, 7,98,382 belong to SC and 2,58,523 belong to OBC. Scholarships are being disbursed directly to the beneficiaries’ bank accounts. This was informed during a high-level review meeting chaired by Chief Secretary A P Padhi here on Saturday. 

Students have been advised to give their Aadhaar number in the online ‘Prerana’ portal while applying for the scholarships, said ST and SC Development Secretary Surendra Kumar after the meeting. 
Two urban hostels have been set up in Bhubaneswar to facilitate higher education for ST and SC students. At present, around 700 students are residing in these hostels pursuing their higher studies, he said.