Scholarships to be credited to bank accounts of students

Vijayawada: The State government is getting ready to credit scholarships and fee reimbursement directly to the bank accounts of the beneficiary students. This would come into force positively in the next two months, said Minister for BC Welfare Kollu Ravindra.

Speaking to media persons here on Wednesday, Ravindra said that the government had cleared the previous year dues to the tune of Rs 1,050 crore under fee reimbursement to the eligible students. Now, the government was planning to credit the fee reimbursement money every year to the bank accounts of the students, he said.

He further added that the government was also planning to credit the scholarship amount into the bank accounts of the students. The new procedure is likely to be introduced in the next two months.

This would end the unrest among the students over delay in extending the benefit of fee reimbursement, he added. The Minister said that the government had already started upgrading the existing welfare hostels into residential schools. The government is providing additional infrastructure to the hostels to turn them into residential schools, he said and asserted that the new residential schools would improve the educational standards in the government sector.

The State government had also prepared the plan to send over 500 BC students for higher education to foreign countries. The officials would screen the eligible students and send them extending the financial support, he added. This scheme would also be extended to the students from the Kapu community from this year, the Minister said.

The Minister further said that the government had decided to implement the BC Sub plan from the current financial year. The government had already allocated over Rs 10,000 crore for the sub plan, he said. The amount would be utilised for education and the empowerment of BCs besides creating infrastructural facilities.

Referring to the loan waiver for the weavers, the Minister said that the government had paid Rs 110 crore benefiting over 25,000 weavers’ families in the State. He said that the government had also decided to bring down the age limit to 50 years for the weavers to receive old-age pension.
Ravindra said that the government was planning to extend financial and technical support to the weavers.
He said the government was planning to revive the Adarana scheme that would provide technical and financial support to the people living on making hand-made tools. A committee was constituted to study the proposal and restore the scheme from this year, he added.

When asked about the increased revenue target for the Excise department for the current financial year, the Minister, who also holds the charge of Excise Ministry, said that steps were being initiated to curb smuggling and illicit brewing of liquor.

They were also getting ready to strengthen the border check-posts to prevent smuggling of liquor from the neighbouring States, he added. These measures would increase the revenue for the department, he said and added that they would also intensify campaign against alcohol through different forms.

The Minister said that the government was committed to discourage consumption of alcohol and there was no going back on
its decision.