NEW DELHI: The Modi government has moved to revamp its post matric scholarship scheme to bear a majority of financial burden of the social welfare initiative.The ministry of social justice and empowerment is likely to move the Cabinet to completely revamp its major welfare scheme for Scheduled Castes. So far, the scheme was working on committed liability principle, whose major financial burden fell on the state. The ministry has moved a note for approval of expenditure finance committee and is likely to table the revamped scheme in the next Cabinet.The overall expenditure of the scheme is estimated at Rs 10,000 crore per year. The scheme has been under sharp focus because of arrears of previous years. So far, the ministry has been able to clear arrears till 2016-17 financial year.However, arrears worth Rs 3,000 crore – Rs 1,500 crore for 2017-18 and 2018-19 and an additional Rs 1,500 crore for 2019-20 – still need to be cleared.

Source: Economic Times June 04, 2019 09:11 UTC