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Over 93,000 scholarship applications stuck in Maharashtra verification queue
Government tells Legislative Council most cases are from current academic year; delays linked to missing or incorrect documents on MahaDBT portal
Navodaya Result 2026 Class 6 Declared: To access their scorecards, students must enter their roll number and date of birth.. (Express Photo by Manoj Kumar/ Representative Image)
More than 93,000 scholarship applications from students pursuing higher education are pending verification in Maharashtra, the state government informed the Legislative Council on Tuesday.
In a written reply to a question raised by Shiv Sena MLC Manisha Kayande and others, Higher and Technical Education Minister Chandrakant Patil said that 93,326 applications were awaiting verification as of February 27, 2026, according to data from the MahaDBT portal.
Of these, 81,753 applications relate to the current academic year 2025 to 26, while 11,573 are backlog cases from the previous four years.
Legislators expressed concern that about 1.42 lakh students had been deprived of scholarships over the past five years until December 2025, raising fears that financial constraints could force some to drop out.
Patil said that as of December 2025, a total of 1,42,383 applications were pending verification. However, after instructions were issued to divisional joint directors to speed up scrutiny, action was taken on 49,057 applications.
Explaining the delays, the minister said verification is often held up because students fail to upload required documents, do not submit hard copies of applications to colleges, or attach incorrect documents on the portal.
The state currently implements 14 scholarship schemes through the MahaDBT portal. Government data showed that between 2021 to 22 and 2025 to 26, a total of 9,68,597 applications were received, of which scholarships were sanctioned for 7,80,495 students.
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During this period, the government disbursed Rs 708.41 crore in scholarship funds, the reply said.
Responding to concerns about students discontinuing their education due to non receipt of scholarships, Patil said the department has not received any complaints of students dropping out for this reason.
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