Post-matric Scholarship Scheme: Punjab govt sitting on its share of PMSS fee

Under the scheme, 60% of the amount is given by the Centre and 40% by the state government. But the Centre releases its amount only after the state releases it.

This academic year till now 2.44 lakh students have applied under the scheme on the portal and the portal will remain open till March 31. In several professional courses, admissions remain open throughout the year.

Out of 2.44 lakh students, the verification of over 2.20 lakh students has already been completed, of which 2.02 lakh students are found qualified under the scheme after scrutiny by a three-member committee at the sub-division level. The verification of the remaining registered students are underway.

Last year, around 2.50 lakh students had applied, out of which 1.95 lakh (1,95,175) students had passed the muster to avail of the scheme after verification. Students of seven types of courses can avail of this scheme in the state including Director Public Instructions (DPI) schools (senior secondary schools), DPI colleges, technical, medical, teaching and others.

A senior officer on the condition of anonymity has said that among the North Indian states, Punjab is topping the verification (of registered students) table. “This time we are planning to touch around 2.50 lakh-mark,” said the officer. According to the data from the Social Justice Department, 1,76,438 SC students got the benefit under PMSS in 2020-21. Officials said that now mostly genuine students are availing of the scholarship under the scheme, as earlier when the major portion of the money (fee) was going into the accounts of the colleges then several colleges indulged in fake admissions of students to avail of the government grant illegally. But now no money is going into the accounts of colleges after the revision of the post-matric scheme.

Mangaljit Pandori, the press secretary of the Punjab Students Union (PSU), says that owing to the revised scheme, there are more checks and balances, and this year students did not face any fee issue unlike the previous years when their roll numbers used to be blocked by the colleges during the final exams for not receiving their fee.

Dr Gurpinder Singh Samra, principal of Lyallpur Khalsa College Jalandhar, who is also the former president of the Principals’ Association of Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU) Amritsar, points out that in their college this session the students’ number under PMSS is around 1,400, but they have not received fee from any student till date while one semester is already over.

“The state government must notify the colleges through a letter when it plans to release the money and transfer it directly in the accounts of the students to avoid confusion,” he said.

A senior officer said that Rs 111 crore has been released by the finance department and soon it will be transferred to the accounts of students and only then Centre will transfer its share.

Minister of Social Justice & Empowerment and Minorities, Dr Baljit Kaur, could not be contacted, while director of the department Babita Kler had joined just a few days ago.

Before 2020 the old PMSS was in practice under which a major portion of the money used to be transferred to the accounts of the colleges. At the time several fake admissions were reported in various colleges. The Centre had stopped funding this scheme in 2017-18 because the states apparently were not doing proper scrutiny to benefit the genuine students. Owing to the stopping of funds, the Punjab government could not clear the dues (Rs 1,563.77 crore) of several colleges for three years – 2017-18 to 2019-20. Two years ago, a Rs 63-crore scam was unearthed by the then secretary (social justice and empowerment department).

In October 2020, the central government had revised this scheme, which used to be sponsored by the Centre 100% earlier. The new scheme came into force from the academic session 2020-21 and it is called Dr B R Ambedkar SC PMSS.

Under this there is a 60:40 sharing ratio between the Centre and the states. The Centre will release its share after the state releases its portion. In Punjab, the total liability of the scheme comes to around Rs 380 crore annually.

In the old scheme, this amount used to be released in two accounts – as tuition fee used to be credited to the account of the colleges and maintenance allowance used to go into the account of the students. But now the entire amount is credited to the account of students who then pay to their respective colleges.

Under the scheme now students are given freeship cards by which they can take admission in any institution, without prepayment of tuition fee and hostel fee. This card should be issued only to those whose parents/guardians’ income from all sources does not exceed Rs 2.50 lakh during the last financial year.