The Process of Releasing Fellowship to Students to be Expedited

The suicide by Rohith Vemula led to a series of protests by the students across the nation. The HRD ministry in its efforts to prevent such students’ unrests in future has decided to expedite the process of releasing fellowship to research scholars. In the opinion of the scholars this is being done to prevent any such tidings in the future.

In a bid to encourage research scholars the UGC had hiked the amount of fellowships last year. However the students remained dissatisfied as the increased amount did not reach them. Some students of the Institute of Chemical Technology apprised the HRD minister Smriti Irani about the issue last month. Following this, the minister convened a meeting of the UGC and AICTE officials and also stated that the money would be transferred to the students within a week.

A notice was also put by the UGC recently on its website stating that all fellowships and scholarships would be released very shortly. It also gave the e-mail address for the benefit of the students who face any problems.

According to a senior official given the fact that the number of students receiving the fellowships being large, it is important that the funds be distributed as smoothly as possible.