Nagpur: School Education Minister Deepak Kesarkar said in the Legislative Council on Tuesday that he will follow up with the Central Government to start a pre-matric scholarship scheme for students belonging to minority communities from class 1 to 10 in the state.
MLC Wajahat Mirza had raised an interesting suggestion regarding the central government’s introduction of closed scholarship scheme for minority students from class I to class X. Minister Kesarkar was speaking while replying to this query.
School Education Minister Deepak Kesarkar said, according to the Right to Education Act, free and compulsory education is given to children from class I to VIII by the government. Therefore, the central government has decided to give pre-matric scholarship to the students of class IX to X except the students of class I to VIII.
Disgruntled with this decision of the central government, students from various minority communities have demanded restoration of the scholarship. Taking cognisance of this demand, the state government has requested the central government to restore the scholarship. We shall follow up with the centre in this regard continuously. Rs 74 crore will be incurred for this scholarship scheme. Kesarkar also said that if the centre does not approve the demand of the state govt, then the state government will consider giving scholarships to students from minority communities from its own funds.
