TFM found that some students studying BE (Civil Engineering) at Dibiya College of Nursing, Sundargarh, Orissa were listed in the beneficiary list of the scholarship. Now students in Manipur who had applied for the scholarship drew the attention of the authority to probe the matter
By Naorem Tanoranjan
After several suspicious irregularities and abnormalities were raised in the selected list for Ishan Uday Scholarship for 2020-2021 in Assam, similar irregularities have been detected in Manipur as well.
Ishan Uday is a special scholarship scheme for the Northeast region introduced by the University Grants Commission (UGC) from academic session 2014-15 for encouraging higher education among students of economically weaker sections. Around 10,000 students are selected for each academic session.
Students apply for the scholarship online and the authority prepares a list of selected students after institution verification. The scholarship is transferred directly to the bank account of selected students.
Suspicious irregularities were first detected in the list of selected students of Assam. And when checked, similar irregularities were also found in Manipur.
Now students in Manipur who had applied for the scholarship drew the attention of the concerned authority to investigate the matter, raising concern that a massive scam might have happened.
Many students from Manipur studying in other states also applied for the scholarship for the academic session 2020-21. Around 974 students were selected for the special scholarship.
Amongst the abnormalities, TFM found that several students of the state studying BSc (Agriculture), BA Bcom (Commerce), Bachelor of Arts (History Honours) at Schieffelin Institute of Health Research and Leprosy Centre, Karigiri, Tamil Nadu were in the selected list.
When contacted, one of the staff of the institute suspiciously maintained that since he is a new staff he is not aware of all the courses offered by the institute.
Some students studying Bachelor of Engineering (Civil Engineering) at Dibiya College of Nursing, Sundargarh, Orissa were also listed. The college authority told TFM that it only offers nursing courses and not engineering courses.
Several students claiming to be studying Bachelor of Engineering at Bharat Sevak Siddhart Arts Commerce Science College, Kondha, Maharashtra were also found on the selected list. TFM couldn’t contact the college.
TFM also found several students in the Scheduled Tribe category whose names were highly suspicious of belonging to any tribe. Several students were also found with the same college, category, religion, gender, class or course, with different father’s names. They appeared adjacent to each other.
Some students who had applied for the scholarship told TFM that such abnormalities have raised suspicion of a massive scam and in turn discouraged the students.
Of the 10,000 students selected, around 6,000 are from Assam. For students studying in Manipur, the majority of the selected students were from a few colleges in the state, they said.
The students also urged the education minister of Manipur and the Directorate of University and Higher Education, Manipur to intervene and investigate the matter before the amounts are transferred.
On the other hand, Democratic Students’ Alliance of Manipur (DESAM) Unit Council, DM College of Arts and Imphal College Students’ Union 2020-21, have also raised the issue and demanded immediate intervention by the concerned authorities.
It may be mentioned that recently, students in Assam have been alleging a massive scam in the UGC’s Ishan Uday Scholarship, 2021. Many abnormalities have been detected in the beneficiary list of the scholarship.
The National Students’ Union of India, Assam has even demanded a CBI probe into the alleged scam.