Nadu Adi Dravida and Tribal Welfare Department has reduced the budgetary allocation for the Post Matriculation Scholarship (PMS) scheme this year by Rs 48 crore.
Under this scheme, scholarship is given to Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) students, who pursue medicine, engineering, arts and science, polytechnic, MBA and other professional courses.
Authorities attribute the fund reduction to drop in applications and SC/ST enrolment in higher Education institutions. This decline started in 2017 the year in which the government tweaked PMS scheme guidelines. Until then, scholarship was provided to all SC/ST students in government, aided and self-financing institutions.