By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, April 17: Despite Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma’s announcement on March 22 that scholarships would be credited to students’ accounts within a day or two, over 13,000 students have not received their scholarship amount.
On March 22, the Chief Minister had announced via a post on X that the central government had released the final installment of Rs 85.0779 crore under the Umbrella Scheme of Post Matric Scholarship for ST Students for the academic year 2023–2024.
However, nearly a month since the announcement, more than 13,000 students are yet to receive their scholarship. The primary reason for the delay is the lack of Aadhaar-bank account linkage, officials from the Directorate of Higher and Technical Education said.
Students have been waiting for the scholarship since last year, with the timeline repeatedly pushed to January, February, and finally March.
The Education Department has been actively working to resolve the issue, as this is the first time Aadhaar-bank linkage has been made compulsory for the disbursal of scholarships. Technical issues during the linking process may have caused delays for many students.
As of now, out of the 27,327 pending cases, scholarships have been successfully credited to the accounts of 13,608 students. The remaining 13,000+ students could not receive the funds because their Aadhaar details are either not linked or not active in the National Scholarship Portal, preventing the system from initiating the payment.
The Department said it is working on rectifying the errors in Aadhaar linkages and is doing everything it can to resolve the issue at the earliest.