Centre releases INR 62 crore post-matric scholarships for over 41,000 ST students in Nagaland; pre-matric funds stalled since 2021.
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KOHIMA — The Ministry of Tribal Affairs has released INR 62 crore for 41,793 beneficiaries in Nagaland during FY 2024–25 under the Post-Matric Scholarship for ST Students scheme. This was stated by Minister of State for Tribal Affairs Durgadas Uikey in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Thursday.
Data show that during the last five financial years, the Union government released INR 32.26 crore in 2020–21 for 36,940 beneficiaries, INR 44.36 crore in 2021–22 for 40,588 beneficiaries, INR 36.08 crore in 2022–23 for 42,485 beneficiaries, INR 35 crore in 2023–24 for 42,485 beneficiaries, and INR 62 crore in 2024–25 for 41,793 beneficiaries in Nagaland.
Data for the north-eastern states further show that under the Post-Matric Scholarship for ST students scheme, the Union government released INR 100 crore for 45,125 students in Arunachal Pradesh, INR 79.71 crore for 77,350 students in Assam, INR 25 crore for 32,275 students in Manipur, INR 145 crore for 73,902 students in Meghalaya, INR 6 crore for 2,411 students in Sikkim, and INR 74.94 crore for 33,506 students in Tripura.
Regarding the Pre-Matric Scholarship scheme, Nagaland was among the states where no funds were released due to the availability of unspent balances from previous releases or non-submission of utilisation certificates (UCs), statements of expenditure (SoEs), formal proposals and other required documents.
The central government has not released any funds to Nagaland under this scheme since 2021–22.
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