12 hours ago
- General
- New Indian Express
Tribal school hostels in Odisha run into trouble over delay in PMS fund
ROURKELA: The frequent delays in disbursal of monthly Pre-Matric Scholarship (PMS) seems to have become a new normal, leading to difficulties in smooth management of hostels in the tribal-dominated Sundargarh district.
Since new academic year begins from April 1, the monthly PMS fund for meeting hostel expenditure of ST and SC students from classes 1 to 10 should be placed in advance. However, in absence of the timely allocation, the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Development (SSD) department which runs the hostels is affected.
This year, the hostels for new academic session started running from April 1 and continued till May 5 as per the government order. After summer vacation, the hostels resumed on June 20, but the PMS fund has not yet been placed.
The School & Mass Education (SME) department has around 396 hostels with another 75 recognised hostels, while the SSD department has around 120 hostels catering to around 49,000 ST and SC students from classes 1 to 10. Recently, PMS dues of 120 hostels of SSD department were cleared.
However, remaining around 29,000 ST and SC students in SME department's 396 hostels and 75 recognised hostels are yet to receive their PMS money for April onwards. The scenario is same across Odisha. Under the scheme, each boy student is entitled for Rs 1,050 scholarship per month, while it is Rs 1,150 for girl student.
