Pune: The Maharashtra Social Justice and Special Assistance Department has revised its common policy governing welfare, scholarship, and skill development schemes across autonomous bodies.
As per a Government Resolution (GR) issued on July 1, the updated policy will standardise programmes managed by prominent institutes, including Tribal Research and Training Institute (TRTI), Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Research and Training Institute (BARTI), Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj Research, Training and Human Development Institute (SARTHI), Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Research and Training Institute (Mahajyoti), Maharashtra Research, Upliftment and Training Institute (AMRUT) and other similar bodies.
Under the revised norms, each institution will now be permitted to provide post-matric scholarships to a maximum of 100 students, while the annual family income ceiling for beneficiaries has been fixed at ₹8 lakh across all institutions.
The government has also introduced uniform limits for competitive examination coaching programmes. Each institution can now admit a maximum of 400 candidates for Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) coaching and 1,000 candidates for Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) coaching, including all examinations conducted by the MPSC.
The GR also modifies eligibility for multi-level coaching programmes. Students who have already completed coaching at a lower level of difficulty will be allowed to enrol in a higher-level coaching programme only once. As a result, a candidate can avail the benefit of competitive examination coaching under these schemes a maximum of two times.
In another significant decision, the government has removed foreign scholarship schemes and Swadhar, Swayam, Aadhar and subsistence allowance schemes from the common policy.
{{/usCountry}}In another significant decision, the government has removed foreign scholarship schemes and Swadhar, Swayam, Aadhar and subsistence allowance schemes from the common policy.
{{/usCountry}}The revised policy has drawn criticism from student groups.
Rahul Sasane, president, University Students’ Struggle Action Committee, Maharashtra, condemned the decision, saying, “Limiting the number of PhD fellowship beneficiaries to 100 per institution was unjust to research scholars.” He also questioned the common policy itself, alleging that applying a uniform framework across all autonomous institutions was contrary to the spirit of the Constitution.
Advocate Kuldeep Ambekar, founder of Student Helping Hands, said, “The decision to cap post-matric scholarship beneficiaries at 100 per institution is unrealistic for a state like Maharashtra where the number of research scholars continues to grow. The ceiling of 400 UPSC and 1,000 MPSC coaching seats per institution was inadequate considering the large number of aspirants.”
Ambekar further pointed out that the policy failed to introduce meaningful institutional reforms or strengthen skill development programmes.