The Department of Minority Development on October 4 announced the final list of students selected under its newly launched foreign scholarship scheme, which declared names of only 24 students. As per the scheme, launched this year, 75 students from minority communities can avail the scholarship. The minority development department received around 50 applicants, of which only 24 were selected. This had led opposition leaders and activists to question transparency in the selection procedure. “With funding and student applications available, why aren't all the seats filled? The candidates who are not selected are not even informed the reason for their rejection. There should be more transparency as this is unfair to students”, said Kuldeep Ambekar of Student Helping Hands. Kailas Ghadge Patil, MLA Dharashiv-Kalamb, and Omprakash Nimbalkar, MP from Osmanabad ,have written to the department and sought information about the rejected candidates and reasons for their rejection. The selection of candidates was done on the recommendation of the committee constituted under the chairmanship of the Principal Secretary, Minority Development Department. The scholarship has been granted to 23 postgraduate students and one doctorate course student. Moin Tashildar, Deputy Secretary, Department of Minority Development, said, “The applications were rejected on an individual basis, each for a different reason”. As per the Government Resolution dated November 23, 2023, the Foreign Scholarship Scheme has been implemented from the year 2024-25 for minority students from the state seeking admissions in 200 QS World Ranking universities for undergraduate and doctoral programmes.
