Hyderabad, December 18: In what appears to be a Sankranti gift for deserving candidates, the State Government has announced that the process of renewal and sanction of post-matric scholarships (PMS) for the academic year 2009-10 will be completed before second week of January. Addressing a press conference here today, the principal secretaries of BC welfare, tribal welfare and social welfare departments said that they had processed 70 per cent of the 10.63 lakh renewal cases and the rest would be processed by December 25.
Principal Secretary (BC Welfare) A Vidya Sagar said they received 13.44 lakh fresh applications, of which around six lakh were processed by field officers at the district level. “Welfare departments have the required budget to sanction scholarships to all eligible candidates and the finance department has already approved the budget requirements,’’ he said.
Principal Secretary (Social Welfare) V Nagi Reddy claimed that the process had become much faster with the replacement of the supporting agency Ram Infotech by the Centre for Good Governance (CGG).
The government sanctioned Rs 2,500 crore for the academic year 2008 while the budget swelled up to Rs 3,500 crore for the present academic year due to the inclusion of Economically Backward Classes category, officials said.
The eligible candidates can apply for these fellowships till December 31.Principal Secretary (Tribal Welfare) Ashok Kumar Tigidi and Commissioner of Social Welfare Praveen Kumar were also present.
–Agencies