'Over 95 lakh Muslim students benefited through scholarships'

New Delhi, Aug 23 (IANS) More than 95 lakh Muslim children benefitted under the government's pre-matric scholarship scheme till the end of March this year, the government said Thursday.

Minister of State for Minority Affairs Vincent H. Pala gave the information in the Lok Sabha in response to a question.

The minister said, "More than 95 lakh Muslim children benefitted under the pre-matric scholarship scheme from inception of the scheme in 2008-09 till the end of the 11th Five Year Plan, i.e 31-03-2012".

The allocation has been increased by 50 percent during the current year - "from Rs.600 crore in 2011-12 to Rs.900 crore in 2012-13 in order to cover more minority students under the scheme".

In response to another question, the minister said that there was no proposal to increase the number of scholarship schemes for students of minority communities.

He said the working group on the 12th Five Year Plan constituted by the Planning Commission has recommended to make the scholarship schemes "demand driven in order to cover all eligible minority students".

Students can apply online through the Online Scholarship Management System for merit-cum means based scholarship scheme.