Over 45L students from minority communities get scholarships

Kolkata: In a major boost to the education system during the ongoing pandemic, the Mamata Banerjee government has provided scholarships to more than 45 lakh students from minority communities.

After the required assessment of the applications, the scholarship amount was directly transferred to the bank accounts of the students from various communities, including Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain and Parsee.

Around 42 lakh students from these communities had received scholarships in 2019-20 fiscal. Despite lockdown, around 45 lakh students have already received the same this year with a few months left for the current fiscal to end. The process had started on August 1. Earlier, the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had said the state government was extending all support to help students from all communities and religions to carry on with their studies and higher education. Even, students from general caste also get scholarships to undertake higher studies.

The Chairman of West Bengal Minorities Development and Finance Corporation (WBMDFC), PB Salim, said: "Our endeavour is to ensure that maximum numbers of eligible students get the scholarship at the earliest after they apply for the same."

Students from these communities, whose family income is less than Rs 2 lakh a year, get Rs 1,500 to Rs 60,000 as scholarships for elementary education to PhD. Meanwhile, the WBMDFC has started a special cloth designing course for youths from the 6 minority communities. Candidates in the age group of 18 to 35 may visit the website www.wbmdfc.org to

apply for the course by November 30. The WBMDFC-sponsored special course will be conducted by National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) for 2020-21. There are four courses - Clothing Production Technology (CPT), Fashion Leather Accessories Design (FLAD), Apparel Designing and Fashion Technology (ADFT), and Fashion Knitwear and Production Technology (FKPT). Outstation students may get hostel facility.