The Cabinet Sub-Committee on fee reimbursement has decided to extend post-matric scholarships to weaker sections candidates pursuing Phds in various universities in the State.
This was one of the decisions taken by the committee after deliberations at its meeting here on Thursday with Social Welfare Minister Pithani Satyanarayana in the chair.
But the Minister refrained from announcing the same during his media-briefing later, in view of the election code in force.
Sources said district Social Welfare Officers would be asked to go case-by-case to ascertain whether a particular candidate doing Phd was getting fellowship honorarium from the concerned university.
Post-metric scholarship would be granted to the candidate if he/she was not receiving any such sum.
The committee also decided to provide fee-reimbursement even if students joined a course after a gap of two years. It resolved to link the e-Pass facility of the fee-reimbursement scheme to Mee Seva, the IT enabled service being provided to the public for better transparency.
In his briefing, Mr Satyanarayana said the Government had kept the fee-reimbursement and scholarships schemes up to date, by releasing an amount of Rs. 2,840 crore due to the beneficiaries up to June 30 for the academic year 2013-14. The balance would be provided without delay.
He said late Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy had launched the fee-reimbursement scheme with a small commitment of Rs. 750 crore but this commitment had reached Rs. 4,857 crore in 2012-13 and was ever increasing. Yet, the Government was not going back on the scheme as it was serving the poor.
The Minister criticised YSR Congress party honorary president Y. S. Vijayamma’s plan to go on a “deeksha” on July 14 and 15 on reimbursement scheme, saying by doing so, she would be serving only the interests of corporate colleges. Her action was anti-poor and politically motivated.
