Early Times Report
LUCKNOW, Sept 26: Addressing the scholarship distribution ceremony at the IGP on Friday, the Chief Minister emphasized that the economic progress of any nation or state begins with education, and it is the government's responsibility to provide students with better educational opportunities. He added, "Nearly 500,000 students from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes were unable to receive scholarships due to institutions failing to upload data on time, which resulted in their records being locked."
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said, "Funds have been arranged to ensure these students receive their scholarships before Diwali." He assured that every student who had been deprived earlier would have the amount transferred directly into their bank accounts, and strict accountability would be held against those responsible to prevent such lapses in the future. During the event, he personally distributed scholarships to several students.
The Chief Minister recalled that before 2017, scholarships were distributed but never reached students' accounts. He said, "Payments meant for September-October were delayed until March-April and were often subject to discrimination. In fact, in 2016, Scheduled Tribe students were denied scholarships altogether."
He said "When our government assumed office in 2017, we ensured that scholarships for both 2016-17 and 2017-18 were disbursed to every child across the state".
Highlighting the government's achievements, CM Yogi stated that the Social Welfare Department is currently providing scholarships to four lakh students from the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, and the General Category in grades 9 to 12. In the first phase, 1.12 lakh students have already received assistance. Additionally, over 2.5 lakh students from the Backward Classes Welfare Department and 25,000 students from the Minority Welfare Department are benefiting from this scheme.
Between 2017-18 and 2024-25, a total of Rs 9,150 crore has been transferred via DBT to 1.23 crore students belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Similarly, Rs 5,945 crore was disbursed to 5.89 lakh students from the General Category during the same period.
Presenting a year-wise breakdown, CM Yogi noted that scholarships worth Rs 1,648.91 crore were given in 2017-18, Rs 1,883.96 crore in 2018-19, Rs 1,887.29 crore in 2019-20, Rs 1,505.53 crore in 2020-21, Rs 1,581.42 crore in 2021-22, Rs 1,813.97 crore in 2022-23, Rs 2,608.13 crore in 2023-24, Rs 2,861.38 crore in 2024-25, and Rs 3,124.45 crore in 2025-26. He underlined that scholarship funding has nearly doubled since 2017-18, with disadvantaged communities now receiving over ?3,124 crore in 2025-26 alone. |
