Bengal tops minority scholarship list

Updated on: Thursday, September 02, 2010

West Bengal’s “progress” in giving out scholarships to minority students is showing. In fact, it has been so impressive that the Centre has written to all states and Union territories to send officers here to see how the schemes are being implemented. The only other state Bengal has for company is Tamil Nadu in this tremendous feat.

A careful note of data, however, will show that this “progress” has been inversely proportional to the way votes have dwindled in elections for the Left Front since 2008. Therefore, the less the votes, the more largesse to woo them back. As the Left Front realised it had lost its traditional support from Muslims — thanks to the Sachar Committee laying bare the neglect the community faced over the years —more funds and scholarships were doled out to them.


The scholarship amount and number of beneficiaries has increased in leaps and bounds since 2009.


At a top level meeting on Tuesday — taken by chief secretary Ardhendu Sen — the government decided to spend Rs 150 crore for an approximately 15 lakh minority students in the coming year.


Already, Rs 100 crore has been spent for 7.15 lakh students this year. Those eligible include students whose family income varies between Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh. The amount spent this year was nearly Rs 40 crore over and above the target set.


While 75% of the funds in these schemes come from the Centre, the remaining funds are pitched in by the state government, which also implements the schemes.


In the past one and a half years, the state government has far exceeded the target set by the Centre. Sources said there is specific instruction from the top that even if the Centre does not clear the funds in that case, the remaining funds would be supplemented from the state government’s own budget.

“We have set specific targets for different categories of scholarships for minority students. However, even if the actual number of applications exceed the target, all applications will be cleared,” a senior officer of the state minorities affairs department said on Tuesday. “In fact, we are asking for as many applications as possible. All of them will be cleared,” the officer said. (TNN)

Bengal tops minority scholarship list

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