A first: Upper caste poor will soon get scholarships

THE MAHARASHTRA government is planning to provide scholarship to economically backward students of the upper castes for higher education on the line of OBC scholarship from the next academic session.

THE MAHARASHTRA government is planning to provide scholarship to economically backward students of the upper castes for higher education on the line of OBC scholarship from the next academic session.

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Informing this here on Saturday, deputy chief minister, R.R. Patil said the state government would make a formal decision on it in a cabinet meeting by this month.

According to Patil, there is an alarming number of school and college dropout among upper-caste students in the state. "Over 30 per cent students give up further education after Class VII while the dropout percentage among the SSC-passed students are 53 in Maharashtra due to poverty," he informed and said to avoid such huge numbers of drop out among students, the new proposal was mooted.

If the proposal materialises, Maharashtra will be the first state in the country where upper caste students will get scholarship, along with SC/ST and OBC students.

Around Rs 100-crore is likely to be spent annually for the new project. The Maharashtra government has been spending over Rs 120-crore for scholarship of 4-lakh OBC students every year.