Scholarship funds to be sent to bank accounts of tribal

Government will soon start disbursing funds under Post-Matric Scholarship for ST Students directly into their bank accounts, Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram said today.
"Post-matric scholarship for ST students will be released through DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer) mode to ensure transparency and fast delivery," said Oram.
For students pursuing PhD and professional degrees in IITs and NITS, government has started disbursing scholarship funds directly into their accounts.
The minister said the delay in disbursal of scholarship amounts were due to the various stages involved in the process. First, the state sends a proposal to the central government which then releases funds to the state. The state, in turn, gives it to the school or the district concerned from there it is manually transferred to the students' account.

"The entire process was time-consuming and led to delay. With the electronic transfer of fund to the students directly, the delay would be eliminated," said a senior ministry official.
Government also provides pre-matric scholarship to ST students for classes 9 and 10 so that they continue their studies even after class 8.

Oram said that his ministry will initiate new measures to ensure that money allotted to states under various tribal welfare schemes reaches the actual beneficiaries. Officials from the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes and the Tribal Affairs Ministry will visit remote areas to ascertain if the benefits have accrued to tribals.

The minister said some independent agencies will also be involved in this task.
The minister said Central TSP (Tribal Sub Plan) allocation to his Ministry increased by more than 20.15 per cent from Rs 19,979 crore to Rs 24,005 crore, ensuring convergence of interventions of other Ministries/Departments.
The Ministry's budgetary plan provisions have been enhanced from Rs 4,550 crore to Rs 4,800 crore.
Approximately, one-thirds of plan outlay has been earmarked for education.
Referring to implementation of Forest Rights Act (FRA), the minister said states that are lagging behind will be asked to improve their performance.
Giving an account of the progress made in implementation of FRA since May 31, 2014 till December 31, 2o15, Oram said total individual claims and community claims to land filed were 6.2 lakhs and 0.30 lakhs. Out of this 2.57 lakhs individual titles and 0.18 lakhs community titled were distributed. The titles distributed covered an area of 34.2 lakh acres.