The special scholarship scheme for the students of Jammu and Kashmir to pursue higher education outside the state has received tremendous response this year because of the awareness workshops organized in Kupwara, Anantnag, Srinagar, Pulwama, Jammu, Doda, Rajouri, Kathua, Kargil and Leh earlier in May this year.
"Because of the transparency brought in by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the scheme and conduct of these 10 awareness workshops, the special scholarship scheme for Jammu and Kashmir students has been a big draw this year. More than 5,000 students of Jammu and Kashmir had applied for this scholarship," Union Human Resource and Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javadekar said.
He said that scholarships worth Rs. 75 crore have been given this year under the scheme.
Earlier, the quota for Jammu and Kashmir students in engineering colleges was limited to only 250, but 1,430 students were granted admission in various reputed engineering colleges this year.
This was due to the enhancement, for the first time, of the supernumerary quota in various engineering branches from 2 to 10, i.e. quota of 10 seats for Jammu and Kashmir students in each engineering college over and above the sanctioned strength.
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This year, Hotel Management and Nursing were also included under this special scholarship scheme.
While 15 students were admitted to reputed hotel management Institutes, 284 students secured admission in various reputed nursing colleges.
Besides this, 177 students of Jammu and Kashmir got admission in medical colleges on their own merit.
In general stream 1,014 students got admission. Overall total scholarships awarded to students of Jammu and Kashmir this year is 3,584 of which 1,329 students were from Kashmir Valley, 26 from Ladakh and 2,255 from Jammu.
Under this special scholarship scheme, up to Rs. 1.25 lakh tuition fee is borne by the Central Government besides up to Rs. one lakh is paid to students for meeting hostel and food charges.
For general courses, a tuition fee of up to Rs. 30,000 is paid by the Central Government along with up to Rs. one lakh towards hostel and food charges.
The tuition fee is transferred to institutes directly so that when the student approaches college for admission, the college will not insist on depositing academic fees.
The hostel and food allowances of Rs. one lakh is transferred to the account of the students in two installments through DBT.
Centralised counseling for allotment of supernumerary seats was conducted between July 26 and August 3 at Srinagar and Jammu simultaneously.
To avail of this scholarship scheme, student of Jammu and Kashmir must have passed Class XII from Jammu and Kashmir and his or her family income must be less than Rs. six lakhs per annum.
In the academic year of 2014-15, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) introduced a transparent system to streamline the process of scholarship application and disbursement.
