Less merit scholarships sanctioned in 2009-10: Govt

Updated on: Sunday, August 08, 2010

The government has sanctioned 24,521 National Means-cum-Merit scholarships in 2009-10, down from 54,564 in the previous fiscal, the Rajya Sabha was informed.

Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said states are not sending adequate number of eligible students for the monthly scholarship of Rs 500.

The National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship scheme initially envisaged creation of a corpus of Rs 3,000 core over a four- year period.

The interest earned from the corpus was to be utilised for payment of scholarships every year in the secondary and higher secondary stage, he said.

But there was a drastic fall in interest rate from 9 per cent to 5 per cent after the first tranche of corpus was created, he said.

â€œSince the yield from the corpus at the new interest rate would not have been adequate for the purpose of the scheme, it was decided in May to wind up the existing corpus of Rs 1,000 crore and to make annual budget provision to meet each yearâ€™s requirement,â€ he said.

A budget provision of Rs 90.50 crore has been made for 2010-11 to fund the scholarship and related expenditure. For 2008-09, as many as 54,564 scholarships were sanctioned to the selected students of class IX in 33 states and UTs. For 2009-10, 24,521 scholarships have been sanctioned to students in 27 states/UTs,â€ he added.

Less merit scholarships sanctioned in 2009-10: Govt

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