State government launches integrated scholarship portal for students

BENGALURU:Lakhs of students in Karnataka can now access their scholarships under the Social Welfare Department directly without hassles of physical verification. Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy on Wednesday launched an integrated state scholarship portal that intends to disburse scholarships directly into the bank account of the beneficiary. The portal aims to effectively curb red-tapism and delays in students accessing their scholarships.

“The new portal will cover all welfare departments — social welfare, tribal welfare, backward classes welfare, minority welfare and also Education Department. Scholarships will be disbursed through direct benefit transfer as per the Government of India norms,”  Kumaraswamy said during the launch.

While the new portal replaces an existing system of scholarship management information system (SIMS), it uses Aadhaar seeding to transfer benefits directly to students. For those students who do not have an Aadhaar card, the portal will offer other alternative and viable means of identification for delivery.

Developed by the Department of e-Governance, the portal has incorporated ‘Student Achievement Tracking System - a unique ID given by the Department of Primary and Secondary Education to all students from Class 1-10 at the time of admission. This feature allows officials to not only monitor students’ progress but also to ensure that there are no delays at the time of disbursal of funds. It essentially removes the need for physical verification.

The portal also will be linked to the Atal Janasnehi Kendra of the Revenue Department for caste and income details.According to Social Welfare Minister Priyank Kharge, his department has distributed `62,736 lakhs in scholarships to 16.02 lakhs students in 2017-18.