Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, November 23

Despite the Supreme Court directions that Aadhaar is not mandatory for welfare schemes, 923 Scheduled Caste (SC) students, enrolled in Classes IX to XII in various schools in the district, have been denied their pre-matric scholarship due to non-linkage of Aadhaar number with their bank accounts.

The non-payment of one-time scholarship has further jeopardised the disbursement of their monthly scholarship. Now, principals of the schools concerned have been asked by the district authorities to get the students’ accounts linked with Aadhaar, so that they can get the scholarship.

Under the pre-matric scholarship scheme, an initiative of the Union Government, each SC student gets Rs 1,450 annually as financial assistance to pursue studies.

Apart from it, each boy and girl student gets Rs 250 and Rs 400, respectively, as monthly scholarship based on their attendance. As per the details, of the total 12,186 SC students in the district, 1,1263 have received their scholarships, while the remaining are waiting for it.

With the non-linkage of Aadhaar with bank accounts, around Rs 13.38 lakh annual scholarship of 923 students is waiting to be disbursed.

Due to the non-disbursement of the scholarship, resentment is brewing among the students and their parents and they are approaching the principals with complaints, but they too are helpless.

One student said he was not getting the scholarship as his Aadhaar number was not linked with his bank account. He said the scholarship should be given to them with immediate effect.

Another student said when he enquired from his bank, he found that his account was non-functional as his Aadhaar number was not linked with it. “I request the authorities to release the payment to all beneficiaries without creating any hurdles,” he said.

Ishwar Singh Mann, District Education Officer, admitted that the bank accounts of 923 students had became inactive due to non-linking of Aadhaar with the accounts.

He said he had directed heads of all schools to get the students’ accounts operational in two days so that they could get their scholarship. These students would get their scholarship soon, he maintained.