By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Sep 8: The Education department on Monday announced that the second instalment of the Umbrella Scheme of Post-Matric Scholarship for Scheduled Tribe (ST) students for the academic year 2024-25 (Fresh and Renewal) has been released to 10,346 selected applicants pursuing professional degrees, postgraduate, and doctoral courses.
“An amount of Rs 6.17 crore has been disbursed from the unspent balance that remained due to some applicants not linking their Aadhaar with their bank accounts. As per guidelines, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs does not release further instalments if unspent balances remain in the SNA scholarship account. After utilising this balance, the department will now move for the release of the second instalment from the Government of India,” Director of Higher and Technical Education, HDB Sangma, said on Monday.
To cover scholarships for the remaining 60,226 applicants, Sangma said the department requires Rs 102.4 crore. Normally, this amount is released by the Centre in 2-3 instalments. However, the department will release the entire scholarship amount in one go by sanctioning State funds in advance, the Director said. the full scholarship amount for the remaining students will be released by the second week of December 2025, Sangma added. For queries, applicants can write to [email protected].