Uttar Pradesh government has decided to register all IITs, IIMs and other premier institutes with its Department of Social Welfare to provide scholarships to students. The decision to register the premier institutes has come after a Dalit student from Uttar Pradesh almost lost his IIT seat due to delayed fee payment.
IIT Dhanbad is the first institute to be registered with the department. The institute was on Monday directed by the Supreme Court to admit the son of a daily wager from Muzaffarnagar's Titora village who was deprived of his seat due to non-payment of fees.
Atul Kumar (18) is a student of Electrical Engineering branch at IIT Dhanbad. He missed the deadline to pay the admission fee of Rs 17,500 by a few minutes.
On Wednesday, the Uttar Pradesh government had announced that it would bear Kumar's entire fee through scholarship. The state government now plans to help all such students.
"We will write to all such institutes of national importance, including IITs and IIMs, that are located outside the state for registration to enable seamless scholarship disbursement to all eligible candidates from the state who get admitted in these institutes," Social Welfare Minister Asim Arun told PTI.
Currently, three Uttar Pradesh government departments -- Social Welfare, Backward Welfare and Minorities Welfare -- disburse scholarships. The Department of Social Welfare is the nodal department for all scholarships and framing rules for it.
(With inputs from PTI)