New Delhi: The Centre, in a verification of 1,572 institutes under the minority scholarship programme from 21 states, has found that 830 of them are either non-existent or beneficiaries were fully or partially fake. The Minority affairs ministry said
- The Ministry of Minority Affairs in India discovered that 830 out of 1,572 institutes (more than 50%) registered under the minority scholarship scheme were either fake or non-operational.
- This means that these institutions received scholarship funds meant for minority students but did not have any legitimate students enrolled or were not even functioning at all.
- The investigation, which spanned 21 states and was based on red flags identified on the National Scholarship Portal (NSP), revealed a potential loss of over Rs 144 crore (approximately $17 million) in scholarship funds between 2017 and 2022.
- Following the investigation, the Ministry handed over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for further probe.
This incident highlights the importance of robust verification mechanisms in scholarship programs to ensure that funds reach their intended beneficiaries and are not misused.
The findings of the study indicated gross irregularities with instances where benefit of Scholarship Schemes is not reaching to the targeted beneficiaries. Government being seized of the complaints, a sample of 1,572 institutes were identified
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