The centrally-sponsored National Means-cum-Merit scheme, which aims at providing scholarship to 100,000 school students annually, has failed to achieve the target in the first year of its implementation.
Only 33,000 students have so far benefited under the scheme, started last year.
The scheme envisages giving scholarship to 100,000 students whose parental income is less than Rs 1,50,000 per annum.
Students above class-IX are entitled for this scholarship and are selected through tests conducted by states and union territories with each having fixed number of seats for scholarships.
"We implemented the scheme in 2008-09 academic year. The government deposited a corpus of Rs 750 crore (Rs 7.5 billion) with State Bank of India, which has opened accounts in the name of the 33,000 eligible students," a senior HRD ministry official told PTI.
The SBI deposited Rs 9 crore (Rs 9 million) this year in the bank accounts of these students. As per the scheme, the students will get Rs 500 per month as scholarship till they complete Class-XII.
The bank will deposit the money in the accounts of the students on quarterly basis.
The government will deposit Rs 750 crore (Rs 7.5 billion) as corpus money annually for four consecutive years starting 2008-09. The interest will be spent towards the scholarship, he said.
The official said that the HRD ministry will review the scheme to find out why only 33,000 students instead of 100,000 could get the scholarship.
"This is the first year. We will review the scheme to find out why one lakh students could not be provided the scholarship," the official said.
The government had decided to launch another incentive scheme for SC/ST girls. However, this has remained a non-starter owing to differences between the Centre and the states over the procedure to implement it.
Students from Kasturva Gandhi Vidyalaya are eligible for the incentive scheme.
