Thousands of Scheduled Caste students may lose scholarships over staff delay

Thousands of Scheduled Caste (SC) students pursuing higher education in the state are about to lose the centrally sponsored post-matric scholarship due to delays in biometric authentication by college empowerment officers.

While most students have completed their biometric authentication, the delay on the officers’ part is likely to impact the disbursal of the scholarship.

The Social Welfare Department has sent a second reminder to the Commissioner of Collegiate Education on the issue.

Of the 15,816 colleges in the state—both private and government—empowerment officers in 9,875 colleges have completed authentication. The process is pending in 5,941 colleges.

The centrally-sponsored scholarship is split 60:40 between the Centre and the state. Biometric authentication is mandatory for both students and the empowerment officer. If either fails, the scholarship is denied,  a senior officer of the Social Welfare Department said. 

It is the post-matric scholarship, and students with an annual family income not exceeding Rs 2.50 lakh are eligible.

Biometric authentication of a nodal officer, who also serves as the empowerment officer of the college, is mandatory.

“The empowerment officer has to visit the nearest Social Welfare Department office at the taluk level and provide the AISHE code of the college, an authentication certificate from the principal, and their Aadhaar number to complete the authentication process. We have requested the Commissioner of Collegiate Education to instruct the college principals concerned accordingly,” the officer explained.

The officer is responsible for verifying student scholarship applications. Failure to complete biometric authentication on their part will result in students not receiving the scholarship.

Bengaluru Urban tops the list of pending cases with 1,555 colleges, followed by Kalaburagi (543), Dharwad (368), Belagavi (306), and Vijayapura (269).