Providing Aadhaar details mandatory for scholarship applicants

With a view to confirm the antecedents of applicants seeking various scholarship or fellowship benefits offered by it, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has made providing Aadhaar details mandatory for all applicants. According to officials, it will not only be a means of verifying the background of the applicant but also enable long-term record keeping.

According to Jaspal Sandhu, the chairman of the UGC, as per instructions from the ministry of human resource development (MHRD), ‘from financial year 2016-17 the Aadhaar number will be used as an identifier for disbursement of all scholarships and fellowships, which are to be disbursed directly to the account of individual beneficiaries.’

“The UGC had informed all universities and institutions in April that all scholars or fellows who were not under the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme had to be brought under the same, failing which disbursement of the scholarship/fellowship would be disrupted. With a view to make the procedure more beneficial to the students, the MHRD decided to seed Aadhaar numbers along with the bank details furnished by scholars/fellows for the DBT. Hence, those who do not submit the Aadhaar details will be affected and the amount will not be transferred in their account,” said Mr Sandhu.

He further emphasised that the UGC would disburse all scholarships and fellowships under the DBT mode and would be using Aadhaar numbers as an identifier. “lt has been reiterated that the scholars/fellows and the universities/colleges/institutions should take a proactive role in uploading the relevant data regarding non-DBT fellows/scholars on the web portal and expedite it in the best interests of the beneficiaries,” said Mr Sandhu.

The UGC, on instructions from the MHRD, had earlier in the year converted the manual disbursement of scholarships/fellowships to DBT to ensure that the beneficiaries got the amount transferred directly to their account to reduce the delay and possibility of malpractices in the system. The UGC appointed Canara Bank for the same, and since then all disbursements have been routed through the bank and the Aadhaar details are also to be updated on the site (https://scholarship.canarabank.in/adminloqin.aspx) by the institutions on behalf of the beneficiaries.

Mr Sandhu added that the same would be applicable from academic year 2016-17 and those who failed to update the required data would not get the amount even if they had been receiving it previously.