While thousands of disabled, Scheduled Castes (SC) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) Phd scholars have not received their national fellowships since April, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has told the Union Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry that it will not continue processing the fellowships, according to letters sent by it.
The Finance Ministry had in March changed the way funds for Central sector schemes flow. Earlier, the UGC would disburse the amount received from the Ministry in question via Canara Bank. The Finance Ministry’s March 9 decision mandated the appointment of a Central nodal agency for Central sector schemes. However, the Finance Ministry had given the Social Justice Ministry and the Minorities Affairs Ministry, which runs the Maulana Azad National Fellowships, an extension till September 30 to continue with the old process or transfer the fellowships into the scholars’ accounts directly as the new policy did not cover schemes with direct benefit transfer (DBT).
Exemption request considered
However, the UGC told the Social Justice Ministry on August 3 that it had considered the Ministry’s exemption request and “it has been decided by UGC that MoSJE may disburse the National Fellowship for Scheduled Castes and National Fellowship for Other Backward Classes at their end only.”
In another letter to the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities under the Social Justice Ministry on June 29, the UGC had told the department to disburse the National Fellowship for Persons with Disabilities through Canara Bank’s scholarship portal. The UGC had told the Minorities Affairs Ministry on July 22 to directly transfer funds to Canara Bank “without involving UGC in the process”.
The NFPwD Scholars Association had on August 5 written to Social Justice Minister Virendra Kumar and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman asking for their intervention into the matter, saying that the delay in disbursing fellowships had led to hardship for the scholars.
