With the introduction of e-scholarship from this academic year, as many as 2.40 lakh bogus beneficiaries who were fraudulently drawing post-SSC scholarships from Maharashtra Government have been identified.
A workshop by the state Ministry of Social Justice held yesterday was informed that Rs 1300 crores were disbursed to about 14 lakh eligible students in the state.
Secretary of the department Dinesh Waghmare said the government has enhanced the limit of scholarship to Rs two lakh per academic year.
Waghmare said the state government was contemplating action against management of those colleges for not refunding tuition fees and examination fees.
Criminal proceedings will be launched against those defaulter colleges. Maharashtra Minister for Social Justice Shivajirao Moghe who inaugurated the workshop and guided the students and heads of various colleges and universities, said about 93 per cent students from the scheduled castes and backward communities have opened savings accounts in prescribed banks where the scholarship is directly deposited.
Moghe said in Nagpur division, 3,56,629 students out of 3,82,531 students are operating bank accounts for e-scholarships.