Over 3,500 J-K students availed scholarships worth Rs 75 cr : Prakash Javadekar

The special scholarship scheme for students to pursue higher education outside the state has received tremendous response this year as awareness workshops had been organised in Kupwara, Anantnag, Srinagar, Pulwama, Jammu, Doda, Rajouri, Kathua, Kargil and Leh in May this year, an official statement said.

Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said today the scholarship scheme has been a big draw this year.  "Due to the transparency brought in by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the scheme and conduct of 10 awareness workshops, the special scholarship scheme for Jammu and Kashmir students has been a big draw this year.

With over 3,500 students from Jammu and Kashmir availing scholarships worth Rs 75 crore for the academic session 2016-17.

More than 5,000 students of the state had applied for this scholarship," Javadekar said.

Earlier, the quota for Jammu and Kashmir students in engineering colleges was limited to only 250, but 1,430 students were granted admission in various reputed engineering colleges this year.

This was due to the enhancement, for the first time, of the supernumerary quota in various engineering branches from 2 to 10, i.e. quota of 10 seats for Jammu and Kashmir students in each engineering college over and above the sanctioned strength.

In general stream 1,014 students got admission. Overall total scholarships awarded to students of Jammu and Kashmir this year is 3,584 of which 1,329 students were from Kashmir Valley, 26 from Ladakh and 2,255 from Jammu.