HOLD ODISHA GRANT SCAMSTERS RESPONSIBLE

THE Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has exposed gaping holes in student scholarship schemes and thrown up serious posers about the direct benefit transfer mechanism in Odisha.

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The performance audit report, which was the post matric scholarship (PMS) and Medhabruti schemes; the former is jointly sponsored by the Centre and the Odisha government, while the latter is entirely state-funded. The auditor detected large-scale discrepancies in beneficiary coverage, institutional framework, fund diversion and ineligible institutions eating up financial support meant for students belonging to socio-economically weaker sections. Sample this: between 2016 and 2020, at least 5,185 beneficiaries from 15 ineligible institutions were sanctioned PMS amounting to ₹15.79 crore. In another instance, an institute applied for and availed of scholarships for students who had