‘Disheartened’ with government reply, House panel seeks measures to fix delay in scholarship disbursal

The Parliamentary standing committee on Social Justice and Empowerment has demanded strict measures to ensure timely scholarship disbursement for students. The committee also urged the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MoSJE) to reconsider the Rs 8 lakh annual income limit for availing free coaching schemes for Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Class students.

A report detailing the committee's recommendations was submitted to both houses of Parliament on Monday, based on the ministry's actions on the recommendations made in March 2026 during the Grants Demands (2026-27) for the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment.

The committee, chaired by BJP MP from Karnataka P C Mohan, approved 14 out of 25 recommendations. The government accepted 56% of the recommendations, while dismissing the responses on four issues. These issues included delays in scholarship disbursal, utilization of the budget for free coaching schemes, revising the family income ceiling for free coaching, and setting up special police stations under the Prevention of Atrocities Act.

The committee highlighted that scholarship funds were released in the following academic year due to states and union territories' inability to process applications in time. The MoSJE attributed this delay to the time taken by certain states to finalize verification processes. The committee expressed frustration with this response, stating that they had expected the department to find a solution to the ongoing issue, but students were left dependent on the states.

Regarding the establishment of special police stations, the committee noted that only seven states/union territories had established them, despite the Prevention of Atrocities Act being enacted over three decades ago. When the panel recommended earlier approval for a proposal seeking enhanced budgetary support for the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955 and SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989, the government claimed to have submitted the proposal to the Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) for consideration.