New Delhi

Delhi Cabinet approves scholarship for socially backward students

NEW DELHI: To motivate more and more students from the socially and economically backward classes to pursue higher education, the Delhi Cabinet on Monday approved grant of scholarship to them in the universities as well as aided, un-aided and affiliated institutions in Delhi.

At a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, the Cabinet also approved the guidelines to permit new institutes to run courses from Lal Dora and extended Lal Dora areas.

Following the Cabinet meeting, Ms. Dikshit said her Government had decided to constitute the Delhi Higher Education Aid Trust, which would be headed by Minister of Higher Education. The Trust is being constituted with the aim to offer scholarship to socially and economically backward students admitted in various universities, colleges and institutions of Delhi.

The Chief Minister said the scholarship would help in uplift of socially and economically backward students and assist them in acquiring excellence. She said a committee was being constituted to work on implementation of the scheme.

Ms. Dikshit said a Higher Education Scholarship Fund would also be made functional under Section 15 of the Delhi Professional Colleges or Institutions Act, 2007. The Delhi Government would contribute an amount of Rs.1 crore as corpus fund for carrying out the objects of the scheme. The Government would also allow self-financing institutions to run second shift on the condition that they would deposit 25 per cent of the total fee collected from students admitted to second shift with the Higher Education Scholarship Fund for providing scholarship to socially and economically backward students.

The Chief Minister said the main objective of the Trust would be to provide scholarship to socially and economically backward students, to provide education loans to socially and economically backward students and to grant stipend, prizes, rewards and allowances or other financial assistance to them.

Ms. Dikshit informed that the Cabinet had also approved the guidelines to permit new institutes to run courses from Lal Dora and extended Lal Dora area. She said some organisations that were running schools and providing other services like rehabilitation services through facilities located in these areas had demanded that they be allowed to run degree level courses in their buildings.

Now these institutes would have to prove that they had been operating in the Lal Dora or extended Lal Dora for at least two years prior to the notification of Master Plan for Delhi-2021; they possess the no-objection certificate from the regulatory body concerned that permit the courses to be run; and they would also have to furnish proof of imparting education in support of they claim that they offer certificate course of at least one year duration and degree course of at least three years duration and at least 200 students have benefited from their courses in the past two years.

Stating that these institutes should also have physical and academic infrastructure for seeking affiliation with Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, it has been decided that the land use for them would be governed as per the MPD-2021 and Zonal Plans. The schools running in Lal Dora and extended Lal Dora on at least 2.5 acres would also be considered for issue of no-objection certificate for starting Bachelor of Education courses subject to adherence of similar conditions.

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