Racket swindling minority scholarship money: Education Minister Ranoj Pegu

Rs 6.70 crore paid to 21,661 minority girl students

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Education Minister Ranoj Pegu said that the Education Department would rope in itself with the State Department of Minorities and the Minority Development Board on the issue of scholarships to minority students from the Union Ministry of Minorities.

Pegu said this today at the ceremonial distribution of scholarships to the girl students belonging to the minority communities of the state.

Ranoj Pegu said, "The Central Government has been investigating the massive anomalies in the scholarship for minority students. A racket has been swindling the scholarship money. The racket includes fake students and fake institutions in the list of beneficiaries. This practice has been rampant in Nagaon and Barpeta districts. We need to make the minorities aware of the scholarships and other benefits meant for them. To make education more inclusive, the government is taking various measures. Our focus is on tea gardens and minority-dominated areas. We have already set up 97 model schools and appointed additional teachers in tea garden areas. The construction works of nine girls' colleges are underway in minority areas to encourage girls' education. Residential schools in minority areas are also under construction in the state under the MSDP (Multi-Sectoral Development Programme). The state also has 67 Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas, mostly in minority areas. School dropout girls get education in such schools, a few of which performed well in the HSLC examination this year."

The Education Department today paid scholarships amounting to Rs 6.70 crore to 21,661 minority girl students for 2021-22 through DBT mode. Under this scholarship scheme, 9,822 minority girl students of Class X got Rs 2,000 each and 11.839 minority girl students of classes XI and XII got Rs 4,000 each.

Education adviser Nani Gopal Mahanta, Secretary to Secondary Education Bharat Bhushan Dev Choudhury, Director of Secondary Education Mamata Hojai and others were present at the programme.

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