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Audit findings: Panjab University yet to recover 13.5 crore from Punjab SC students under Post Matric Scholarship scheme

By, Chandigarh
Jan 14, 2025 08:32 AM IST

While initially, the state government used to transfer the students’ fee directly to the varsity, they eventually started disbursing it to the students’ accounts under the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme after which students were expected to submit it to their college or university concerned

Panjab University (PU) is yet to recover 13.53 crore from scheduled caste (SC) students availing the Post Matric Scholarship (PMS) scheme from Punjab, an audit on the functioning of the registrar office during 2023-24 session has revealed.

The audit found that various departments and constituent colleges of PU did not take admission fee or other charges from SC students of Punjab, eligible for PMS. (HT File)
The audit found that various departments and constituent colleges of PU did not take admission fee or other charges from SC students of Punjab, eligible for PMS. (HT File)

PMS schemes are centrally sponsored and implemented by the state governments. These schemes were introduced for SC students in 1944.

The audit found that various departments and constituent colleges of PU did not take admission fee or other charges from SC students of Punjab, eligible for PMS.

Further, the varsity also failed to maintain records on the number of students from whom scholarship amount was collected.

While initially, the state government used to transfer the students’ fee directly to the varsity, they eventually started disbursing it to the students’ accounts under the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme after which students were expected to submit it to their college or university concerned.

As per information, Punjab government owes PU around 21 crore as dues before the DBT scheme was started.

At the start of the 2024-25 session, students had started a protest as PU allegedly asked students claiming the scholarship to pay their fees in the beginning of the session. PU had later decided that students will need to submit an undertaking at the time of admission, agreeing to deposit the fee within 10 days of receiving the amount in their accounts through DBT.

Some students of the 2022-24 session had also approached the Punjab and Haryana high court after they alleged that they hadn’t received their degrees and were unable to pursue further education or get employment. The court had summoned principal secretaries of the department of higher education, department of finance, and department of scheduled caste and backward classes welfare after PU claimed that degrees were withheld as the Punjab government had not released the funds under the PMS scheme. Punjab had informed the court that they will release 2.7 crore within two weeks in November last year. While Punjab has paid this amount, officials said the majority of the amount is still pending.

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