9 hours ago
Nagaland to award 41,793 ST students with post-matric scholarships
KOHIMA: A total of 41,793 Scheduled Tribe (ST) students from Nagaland have been identified as beneficiaries under the Post Matric Scholarship (PMS) scheme for the academic year 2024-25, requiring an estimated Rs 56.38 crore of funds, officials said on Tuesday.
However, due to the current availability of Rs 30.70 crore, the disbursement will be carried out in phases.
Addressing a press conference at the Directorate of Higher Education here, Keduosielie Keyho and Tol Pucho, both Officers on Special Duty (OSD) for Scholarships, stated that the first phase of payment will cover 22,000 students, which is about 52.64 per cent of the total beneficiaries.
These students will receive their entire scholarship amount as a one-time payment, unlike previous years when payments were made in instalments, said Keyho.
The scheme is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) with a 90:10 funding pattern between the Centre and State governments.
Of the total applicants, 30,451 have been system-authenticated, while 11,342 students remain unauthenticated due to non-seeding of Aadhaar number with bank accounts, he said.
The officer said that auto-generated SMS messages have been sent to these students with instructions to resolve the issue while the remaining eligible students will be included in the next phase of disbursement once additional funds are received.
For the first time, the scholarship disbursement will be made through the National Scholarship Portal (NSP), moving away from the earlier Public Financial Management System (PFMS), he said.
"Under NSP, instalment-based payments are not permitted. Instead, scholarships will be paid in one full instalment per beneficiary, though in phases," Keyho said.
He said that this shift aligns with the Government of India's mandate for end-to-end digitisation, ensuring transparency, efficiency, and direct transfer of benefits to the rightful recipients.
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