10 October,2017 05:00 PM IST | Mumbai | Pallavi Smart
The woes of college students in the state seem to be never-ending. Even as numerous of Mumbai University students reel from the five-month delayed results mess, reserved category students from various varsities are fighting a different battle
The woes of college students in the state seem to be never-ending. Even as numerous of Mumbai University students reel from the five-month delayed results mess, reserved category students from various varsities are fighting a different battle. Almost a month into their academic year, thousands of such students, entitled to scholarships, are unable to go through with the process due to a technical glitch on the state website, mahadbt.gov.in.
The state offers higher education scholarships to students from reserved categories - Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), Nomadic Tribe (NT) - for which interested students need to apply on the government portal. Incidentally, the website had been non-functional for over a month. The application process went digital five years ago and nearly 50,000 students from Mumbai avail the benefit, every year.
Ruing about the technical glitch, Amol Hire, a mechanical engineering student from BhivÂpuri College, Karjat, said, "The portal start functioning recenÂtly, but after filling out our personal details, when we try to choose our subject, the drop down menu comes up empty. If we can't choose a subject, how does the government expect us to apply for scholarships?"
The delay in completing the application process has ensured that students need to pay for the courses out of their own pockets, for now. Dinesh Waghmare, secretary of the Social Welfare Department, remained unavailable for comment, but a senior official from the department said, "The application process was changed this year. Now, the scholarship money is directly transferred to the students' accounts, who pay the colleges. There are some technical faults with the portal, but those would be resolved soon."
