[ Taro Chatung ]
In the recent past there has been much talk about the delay in PMS 2018-19 scholarship payment on various social media platforms.
I, as a journalist, at my own level decided to follow this story from 19 August with two objectives – to know the factors which caused the delay in scholarship payment, and to know about the transparency in the account transactions.
The first reason which caused the delay was because of the union tribal affairs ministry, which could not release the scholarships on time. It caused anxiety at the SJETA department in Arunachal. The Centre released its share of the scholarship amount only in the last part of August 2019, which was very late.
It was 21 May, 2019, when the SJETA director processed the file requesting the state government to provide an ad hoc allocation (loan) amounting to Rs 42 crore. Here we found the second reason which caused further delay in releasing the scholarships. The state government did not consider the prayer for the loan at one go but in two parts, which entailed more days in file processing. Otherwise the department concerned
could have completed the PMS scholarship payment by the first week of September.
However, the second file, for Rs 24, 41,08,600, is also completed, and the third list of students, numbering 7680, would be paid the amount as the PMS list was submitted to the bank concerned on 13 September. But the processing of the third file, of Rs 6 crore, for 1816 students, is not expected to be completed till 21 September.
It is the state government which decided to process the release of the Rs 42 crore through three different files at its own convenience.
