The Mamata Banerjee government has launched a new scheme “Aikyashree” that will shoulder the entire burden of providing scholarships to students of minority communities after nearly half of the applicants in the state could not secure the Centre’s scholarship last year.

The initiative that could put an additional burden of Rs 800 crore on the struggling state exchequer assumes significance in the backdrop of the ongoing agitation against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. Aikyashree sends a message that the state’s ruling party will not discriminate between students from minority communities.

Both the central and state scholarships are for pre-matric (from Class I to Class X) and post-matric (from Class XI to postgraduate, including

professional courses) students. Under the Centre’s scheme, a student will get a minimum of Rs 1,200 annually, while the state has offered a minimum scholarship of Rs 1,100 per year.

“But in case of higher classes, the state’s scholarship is more attractive and it offers at least 10 per cent additional amount than the central scholarship. Majority of the students will get the benefit of a higher scholarship under the state scheme,” said a source.

Sources in the state administration said a total of 32 lakh applicants had been sent from the state for central scholarship for minority students in 2019-20, but the Union government entertained only about 16 lakh applicants.

Half of the applications for the central scheme were probably left out as those did not qualify the criteria of securing at least 50 per cent marks in the previous final exam. “The state government wanted the details of the applicants who could not get the scholarship so that it could provide them with assistance. But the Centre did not send the details,” said sources.

An official said the state couldn’t provide financial grant to the students who were denied the central scholarships because of unavailability of the data. “This prompted the state government to launch Aikyashree this year and seek applications from minority students,” he said.

“We are not discouraging any student from applying for the central scholarship. But we have made the state scholarship more attractive compared to the Centre’s so that we get a large number of applications,” added the official.

The effort by the state is already visible. The state government has received nearly 42 lakh applications from minority students under the scheme, which is 10 lakh more than the applications for the central scheme last year.

Sources pointed out two reasons behind the sudden rise in the number of applications for minority scholarships. First, the state authorities carried out an intensive campaign to make the project successful. Second, the state did not fix any specific criteria other than a family income cap for applying for the scholarship.

“In case of central scholarship, a student has to secure at least 50 per cent marks in the previous final year exam, but the state did not fix any such criterion. In case of family income cap, both the Centre and the state has fixed that the annual family income of the applicants should not exceed Rs 2 lakh,” said a source.

The move, officials said, had a political aspect, too, as the ruling party in Bengal did not want minorities to be dependant on the BJP-led Centre in an apparent attempt to send out a message to the communities that the Trinamul does not discriminate when it comes to extending assistance to aspiring students.

“The state did not set any qualifying marks only to ensure that nobody is left out… In a practical view, this is quite pragmatic if one considers the socio economic situation of the minority communities,” said an official.

A Trinamul insider said that it would send out a message that the chief minister did not discriminate anybody and was eager to improve the present condition of the minorities.