State govt asks scholarship students to apply offline after online system fails

This year, due to some technical changes, many students have not been able to apply online because names of some courses are missing from the list given on the portal. Representation pic/Thinkstock

Almost an entire academic year has gone by and yet the reserved category students are still awaiting their scholarships. They have fallen prey to the very problems with the online application process that they have pointed out multiple flaws in. While the government had previously insisted on continuing with the digital process, they now want students to apply for the scholarships offline. Such directives coming right in the middle of the exam season have caused panic among students.

Unable to apply
The state government provides higher education scholarships to students from reserved categories such as the Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Nomadic Tribes (NT) for which interested students have to apply online. Around 50,000 candidates from Mumbai take benefit of this government facility. The process has been online for more than five years now, but this year, due to some technical changes, many students have not been able to apply because names of some courses are missing from the list given on the portal.

Kept suffering
"This is what we have been complaining about since the process began. But the authorities kept saying they are working on resolving the issue. Meanwhile, all of us kept suffering with no money in our hands. Some of us have managed to arrange for finances for this academic year to pay to college but if this trouble continues, we do not know if some of us will be able to take admission in the next academic year," said Anil Sawre, one of the troubled students.

"Students kept demanding to go back to the traditional manual procedure due to these glitches, as the academic year has already begun. But the government never listened to students then. It is funny how they are now asking students to re-do the entire process offline. They have woken up to the issue when the academic year is almost ending," said Amol Matele, president of NCP's students' wing. He said a letter in this regard has been sent to the state's social welfare department, asking for scholarships to be issued within a month. mid-day tried to reach out to Dinesh Waghmare, secretary of the social welfare department, but he remained unavailable for comment.

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