Over Rs 4800 crore released as scholarships to minority students says Smriti Irani

New Delhi: The government on Monday said it has released Rs 4,860.50 crore funds as sholarships to students belonging to minority community in three years including the current fiscal.

During the period, Rs 2,812.02 crore funds were released under the pre-matric, Rs 1,309.91 crore under the post-matric and Rs 738.57 crore under the merit-cum-means based scholarships schemes, HRD Minister Smriti Irani said in Rajya Sabha. The Minister also said over 3.28 crore scholarships were awarded during the period.

"The Ministry of Minority affairs provide scholarships to students belonging to minority category," she said replying to a supplementary during the Question Hour.

She added that as per Unified District Information system for Education 2013-14, there are a total of 28,276 Urdu medium schools in the country, out of which 16,382 are government schools.

Meanwhile, former Minority Affairs Minister R Rahman Khan said since there are 15 million students belonging to minority community in the 6-12 years age bracket, the number of Urdu medium schools should be increased to 75,000.

Irani said the government always supports the setting up of Urdu medium schools if the states so desire.