DHE asked to process scholarships of workers’ wards

BHUBANESWAR: The Ministry of Labour and Employment has asked the Higher Education department to clear the scholarship applications of workers’ children in the State.In a letter to Higher Education Secretary Bishnupada Sethi on Friday, Regional Labour Commissioner (Central) Tapas Kumar Panda said it has come to the notice of the Ministry of Labour that hundreds of applications for scholarships submitted by wards of beedi, mines and cinema workers of Odisha are pending at the local college level.

The Centre, through its National Scholarship Portal, provides pre-matric and post-matric scholarships ranging from Rs `1,000 to Rs 25,000 per month under the scholarship scheme guidelines of various ministries to students for their education from primary to professional degree level.Students apply for the scholarship through their colleges which verify their genuineness and then recommend the same to the State nodal officer of scholarship schemes by logging into the portal through an assigned user id. 

This year, while the deadline for school students to apply for the scholarship is over, the one for college students is end of October. Panda said although the deadline is nearing, many applications are lying unattended in educational institutes and if not cleared, will deprive poor students of financial assistance from the government. State nodal officer Smruti Prava Sahoo said the pendency is due to the fact that many faculty members who deal with the scholarship schemes are unaware of the online modalities of clearing the applications.