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The Narendra Modi led cabinet today (23 December) approved a Rs 59,048 crore investment to provide post-matriculation scholarship to 4 crore Scheduled Caste (SC) students.

This scholarship will aid the SC students in completing their higher education for the next five years.

Out of the total investment of Rs 59,048 crore, the Central Government would spend Rs 35,534 crore and the balance would be funded by the state governments. This replaces the existing committed liability system and brings greater involvement of the centre in this scheme.

“Today’s Cabinet decision on post-matric scholarship will ensure greater educational access to youngsters belonging to SC communities. Ensuring top quality and affordable education to our youth is an important focus area for our government,” the prime minister said in a tweet.

“The scheme will be run on an online platform with robust cyber security measures that would assure transparency, accountability, efficiency, and timely delivery of the assistance without any delay. The states will undertake fool-proof verification of the eligibility, caste status, Aadhaar identification and bank account details on the online portal,” it added.

The central Assistance which was around ₹1,100 crore annually during 2017-18 to 2019-20 would be increased more than five times to be around ₹6,000 core annually during 2020-21 to 2025-26.