Other states to focus on UP’s scholarship management system

It is available online and helps maintain transparency and detect fake beneficiaries.

The NIC’s Uttar Pradesh unit received the invitation after making a presentation before Union Secretary of Social Justice K M Acharya,Joint Secretary Sanjeev Kumar and other officials in New Delhi last Monday.

“A discussion on UP’s scholarship management system will be held during the conference. If the system was found feasible for other states,the ministry may adopt this model to monitor its welfare schemes across the country,” said Ganga Kumar,Deputy Secretary at the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. He added that the online system has been found very effective,as it helped detect irregularities in scholarship distribution in the state.

The state NIC had developed the system in 2007. Through this,it currently maintains a comprehensive database of scholarship beneficiaries including information like name,roll number,father’s name,category,class and gender of the beneficiary. It also records the scholarship amount,name of the bank,its branch and the account number through which the student had received the money. All information is provided and regularly updated on the website http://scholarsh-ip.up.nic.in.

According to S B Singh,they have been asked to prepare for the October 18 demonstration with some added features,including challenges in the implementation of the system and steps taken to overcome them.

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In Uttar Pradesh,the Social Welfare department provides scholarship to Scheduled Castes,Scheduled Tribes and general students from below poverty line families. Students from Classes 1 to V get Rs 25 per month,students from Classes VI to VIII get Rs 40 per month and students in Class IX and X get Rs 60 per month. Scholarships at the same rates are given to OBC and minority students by the Backward Classes Welfare and Minority Welfare departments. From Class XII to the postgraduate level,scholarships are given only to meritorious students from families whose annual annual income does not exceed Rs 1 lakh. The amount of monthly scholarship varies from Rs 235 to Rs 740. In 2009-10,around 4.23 crore students were given scholarships worth over Rs 1,956 crore.