In order to support and empower students of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh Union Territories for completing online studies, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has decided to release Rs 20,000 under Prime Minister’s Special Scholarship Scheme (PMSSS). The PMSSS is aimed at building the capacities of the youth of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh by educating, enabling and empowering them to compete in the normal course. Under the scheme, the youth are supported by way of scholarship in two parts-academic fee and maintenance allowance. The academic fee which covers tuition fee and other components as per the ceiling fixed for various professional, medical and other under-graduate courses, is paid to the institution where the student is provided admission after on-line counselling process conducted by the AICTE. In order to meet expenditure towards hostel accommodation, mess expenses, books and stationery etc, a fixed amount of Rs 1 lakh as maintenance allowance is provided to the beneficiary and the same is paid in instalments of Rs 10,000 per month directly into students account. “The AICTE has already released the entire academic fee for the year 2020-21 to all the institutions”, an official handout said, adding “the maintenance allowance had been fully released as per the scheme guidelines till the end of last academic year 2019-20. Subsequently, due to prevailing COVID-19 pandemic, the academic institutions across the country were closed and only online cases are going on. Since there is no hostel and mess expenditure involved, the maintenance allowance was suspended till such time students physically join the institutes. “However, in order to support and empower students for completing online studies, it has been decided to release the instalment of Rs 20,000 and the same shall be released to all the beneficiaries pursing classes in old semester (July-December 2020)”, the AICTE said, adding “the subsequent instalments will be released once the students join physically at their respective institutions based on the verification of continuation certificate issued by the institution.
