The COVID pandemic may have forced an increase in public health spending but came as a relief to Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) due to reduced spending on the Scholarship Program for Class X and Class XII Outstanding Students.
PMC started its scholarship scheme for Class X and Class XII outstanding students in the city in 2011. The Rs 15,000 scholarship scheme for Class X students is named after Bharat Ratna Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad and Rs 25,000 scholarship for Class XII students named as Lokshahir Annabhau Sathe scheme .
Minimum scholarship eligibility was 80 percent for students in the open category, 70 percent for students in the reserved category and 65 percent for students with a 40 percent disability.
In addition, the Shardabai Pawar scholarship scheme is implemented for civil school students who pass 85 per cent in class 10 and 80 per cent in class 12. The scholarship amount of Rs 51,000 each is awarded to eligible students of merit.
The civilian body scheme had a good response from citizens from its inception, and the CMC had to divert funds from other budget allocations to cover scholarship spending each year. However, spending on scholarships has declined during the pandemic.
Before the pandemic, the PMC had to disburse Rs 21 crore from 2016-2019 to cover expenditures for the implementation of the scholarship scheme but it decreased to Rs 15.08 crore in 2019-20 and Rs 17.88 crore in 2020-21.
In 2019-20 and 2020-21, the number of Category X beneficiaries was 6,020 and 7,526, respectively, compared to 8,669 in pre-pandemic 2018-2019. Similarly, the number of category 12 beneficiaries was 2,420 and 2,640 in 2019-20 and 2020-21 respectively compared to 3,487 in 2018-2019.
“The number of applicants for scholarship programs has decreased since the beginning of the pandemic. This is despite the results for Class X and Class XII being good. It may be because citizens are afraid to go out to complete the scholarship process,” the civil official said.
Meanwhile, the elected representatives of the Women and Child Welfare Committee of the Central Military Commission urged the Civil Administration to extend the scholarship scheme for all students who exit Class X and XII with a minimum score of 60 percent. They passed the resolution to change the eligibility criteria to a minimum of 60 percent.
“The current 80 per cent eligibility for the open class and 70 per cent for reserved class students prevents many students from being awarded the scholarship. It negatively affects the students’ self-confidence. Hence, the scholarship criteria should be lowered to a minimum score of 60 per cent for all class students. X and Class XII. They said in the decision that this would encourage more students in their studies.
Municipal Commissioner Vikram Kumar said the Civil Administration is not in favor of lowering the eligibility criteria to 60 per cent for scholarships.
“The PMC has experienced a shortage of funds in the last few years to implement the scholarship program and had to seek funds for other work. Moreover, the budget allocation is likely to decrease by a significant amount considering the incorporation of 23 new villages into PMC which It will increase the number of system beneficiaries.If eligibility is reduced to 60 percent, scholarship spending is likely to double.
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