Patna, May 13: The state cabinet today fixed the scholarship amounts for SC/ST students studying at technical institutions and other central funded institutions.

Students studying at IITs will get Rs 90,000 as annual scholarship amount, while for those at National Institutes of Technology (NITs), the scholarship amount will be Rs 70,000.

Similarly, for students studying at other institutions pursuing technical or management education, the scholarship amount has been fixed at Rs 75,000. The other institutions include National Law Universities, National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFTs) and others.

Briefing the media, the cabinet co-ordination principal secretary Brajesh Mehrotra said: "The state cabinet fixed the scholarship amount for SC/ST students studying at technical institutions from 2014-15 and 2015-16. From financial year 2016-17, the state government would introduce the students' credit card."

Under the students' credit card, which aims at providing education loans up to Rs 4 lakh, was one the seven resolves made as election promise by chief minister Nitish Kumar during the Assembly polls last year.

The state cabinet also decided to treble the incentive amount of Mamta community health workers working in the maternity wards of public health centres (PHCs) and government hospitals. The Mamta community workers will now get Rs 300 for attending a delivery case.

According to the earlier rules, these health workers were paid Rs 100 for attending a delivery case.

Sources said there were around 4,000 Mamta community health workers working at different PHCs and government hospitals and with the increase in incentive amount, the state exchequer will bear an additional burden of Rs 48.97 crore.

The state cabinet also gave its nod to the implementation of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana from year April 1, 2016. It is a new crop insurance scheme announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 13, 2016. The scheme requires farmers to pay a very low premium to insure their crops.

Under the new crop insurance schemes, farmers will have to pay a premium of only 2 per cent of the sum insured for Kharif crops, while for Rabi crops, the premium amount for farmers will be 1.5 per cent in horticulture and cash crops the premium amount will be 5 per cent.

The difference between the premium paid by the farmers and the premium fixed by the insurance companies will be subsidised and there will be no cap on the maximum subsidy paid by the government.

The state cabinet gave its nod to a total of 10 proposals, from education to water resources to general administration departments.