Haryana: IAS officer Ashok Khemka tweaks scholarship trend to help rural students

This year, 95% students from rural schools were given science scholarships

Haryana IAS officer Ashok Khemka has tweaked the scholarship trend for science to help rural students, months after assuming charge of the bureaucratic head of the science and technology department. This year, out of 202 scholarships, the department has offered financial aid to 95 per cent school students from rural Haryana. Khemka decided to give 5 per cent weightage to the students who have passed Class XI and XII examinations from rural schools. “The additional 5 per cent weightage was given to the students from schools situated in rural areas to support and encourage the under-privileged sections of the society,” he said.

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Wazir Singh, the president of Haryana Vidyalaya Adhyapak Sangh, said: “The lab facilities in government schools of rural areas are almost negligible. No special classes are held for practical science sessions. Moreover, they keep battling shortage of lab attendants,” he said. The science scholarship is offered under the Promotion of Science Education (POSE) scholarship scheme to encourage meritorious students towards science education and help them to continue their studies up to the higher level.

The science and technology department had introduced the POSE scheme in 2009 for undergraduate and postgraduate students to encourage meritorious students towards science education and help them to continue their studies. The department spends about Rs 3 crore per year for POSE scholarship award. This year, 2,282 applications were received for scholarship, out of which 202 were selected.

The students with minimum 85 per cent marks in Class XII from urban schools and minimum 80 per cent marks in Class XII from rural area are eligible to apply for the three-year BSc, four-year B S, five-year integrated MSc and MS courses, students with minimum 75 per cent marks in BSc are eligible to apply for MSc course. The amount of scholarship for three-year BSc, four-year B S, five-year integrated MSc and M S courses is Rs 4,000 per month, and for MSc students, it is Rs 6,000 per month.

The 1991 batch IAS officer, Khemka was posted in the science and technology department as its principal secretary in April 2016. In 2002, Khemka had made headlines when he had cancelled the land deal between UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra and real estate giant DLF.