Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, 16 Apr: Clarifying the stand of the state government over the stipend issue, Education Minister Taba Tedir on Friday stated that the government is committed to provide stipends to the student community of the state.
Addressing a press meet here, Tedir said the government is aware of the problems affecting the students due to non-payment of stipends.
“We are aware that students in order to pursue higher, technical and specialized courses need to pay fees timely and need support for other commitments. The government is concerned for the payment of stipends to students,” he said.
He also briefed about the status of the stipends for college/university students, post-matric scholarships under the union tribal affairs ministry, and stipend to schools, including DIET students.
“For college/university students, the scheme was on-boarded in the national scholarship portal (NSP) from 2017-18. During the academic session 2020-21, a total of 16,374 eligible applications have been received against the scheme, for which an amount of Rs 26.85 crore (Rs 16,400 x 16,374 students) is required for payment of stipends for the session 2020-21,” Tedir said.
In this regard, the sanctioning of funds from the state government is under active consideration, he said. “The education department will make payment of stipends to the students by direct benefit transfer (DBT) through PFMS platform on getting sanction order from the state government.
“Accordingly, stipends will be released for disbursal through PFMS, preferably within next month,” said the minister.
For the post-matric scholarships under the union tribal affairs ministry, the directorate of higher education has received 31,916 applications against the scheme through the NSP. A total of Rs 90.20 crore (central share 90 percent = 81.18 crore, and state share 10 percent = 9.02 crore) is required for the payment of scholarships for the 2020-21 session.
“The ministry of tribal affairs has allocated the first installment, amounting to Rs 18.45 crore only during FY 2020-21. An amount of Rs 63 crore of the central share is yet to be released by the tribal affairs ministry. On getting the remaining funds, the same will be released by the state government through DBT,” informed Tedir.
Regarding stipends to schools, including DIET students, the minister said that the elementary and secondary education directorate has released Rs 8.9 crore, being the stipends for two months, ie, February and March 2021, as their hostels were opened wef 1 February, 2021.
“The rest of the amount will be released by the state government in a phased manner as per the guidelines for stipends,” he added.
The education minister further made it clear that, under his guidance, the education department would focus on the welfare of students, honing their skills and providing opportunities to pursue higher education.
Education Commissioner Niharika Rai and Secondary Education Director M Kadu were also present at the press briefing.
