CHENNAI: In a move likely to directly impact nearly 1.5 lakh students,

has slashed

by more than a third for scheduled caste and scheduled tribe

students

pursuing engineering, medicine, law and other streams, citing a

crunch.

Management quota dalit and tribal medical students, who had been receiving up to Rs12.5 lakh each annually, will from this year get just up to Rs 4 lakh, the limit fixed for such students’ medical education under

government

quota.

Students pursuing other courses will be similarly impacted by such cap, been set using fees collected for government quota sears as the benchmark. The funding cut comes amid a hike in fees for professional courses this year.

Tamil Nadu's total demand under the said scheme for 2016-17 was Rs.1,279 crore and more than half of it is yet to be disbursed. Against this backdrop, the state passed an order, a copy of which is with TOI, to cut the post-matriculation scholarship for dalit and tribal students in private colleges under management quota.

In the past nine years, Tamil Nadu has not received the full amount it demanded from the Centre.

Many students drop out of college citing inability to pay fees, an expense that is to be borne by the government and whose payment has been riddled by delays.

One such student who lives on the outskirts of Chennai told TOI her future were uncertain as she hadn’t received the funds promised by the state to support her education.

The order comes days after it was announced in the state assembly that amounts yet to be disbursed under the scheme would be cleared soon. A similar order was reportedly issued three years ago, but was subsequently quashed following stiff opposition.

The Adi Dravida Welfare department has already raised objections to the amendment, sources said.

Chief minister Edappadi Palaniswamy, in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May, said the Centre was yet to release its pending share of Rs 1,546 crore accrued over the last 5 years, adding that the state had been bridging the gap using its own funds.

Every year, say activists, more than 30 dalit students don’t join private medical colleges because of financial constraints despite being admitted through counselling.

Since the scheme was launched in 2010-11, the scholarship amount has never been revised to match increasing tuition fees by self-financing colleges.

R Christodas Gandhi, former developmemt commissioner who raised the issue of viability gap funding back in 2012-13, said enrollment by dalit and tribal students in professional courses will now take a beating. “The number of SC/ST students increased after the scheme was launched. From 10,000, the figures rose to 40,000 last year for engineering. Now, the figures will drop again.”