Patna, May 29: The Bihar government has announced a Rs 1,000 crore bonanza for students hailing from Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Castes (OBCs) and Extremely Backward Castes (EBCs), in an effort to widen its social base before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi informed this on the sidelines of his weekly janata darbar today.

“Time and again, the Bihar government keeps bringing some schemes which can help the state develop. No state in the country gives hundred per cent scholarship to SC/ST, OBCs and EBC students. We are the first to start this initiative,” said Modi.

During his budget, Modi, also the finance minister of the state, had hinted that the stipend of students would be raised. The government has now gone ahead and announced that stipends would be paid across the board to students hailing from these sections.

Modi said the scheme would benefit around 1.25 crore students across Bihar.

“Earlier very few students were given the scholarship based on certain criteria but from now, all students of SC/ST and EBC groups, from classes I to X, will get the benefit of scholarship in the state. In fact, the government has also increased the scholarship amount three times,” he said.

Students of classes I to IV, who used to get Rs 15 per month, will now get Rs 50; students of classes V to VI, who received Rs 30, will now get Rs 50 per month. Similarly, students of SC/ST and EBC groups of classes VII to X will henceforth get Rs 150 per month, Modi said. He informed that that technical scholarship has been revised from Rs 150 to Rs 500.

The government last revised the scholarship amount in 1998-1999.

“With this initiative, the government will spend Rs 1,000 crore on around 1.25 crore students who will get the benefit of the new scheme. The scholarship to the SC/ST students will be implemented from 2011-2012 itself. However, the scholarship to the EBC and OBC students will be implemented from April 1, 2012,” Modi said.

In the year 2010-2011, the government spent Rs 100 crore on scholarships and in the next fiscal, the amount went up to Rs 457 crore.

However, the government has put one condition before delivering the benefit of scholarship to the students in the form of attendance.

“There is also one condition which every student has to comply with. We have not decided the percentage of attendance but it would be between 62 per cent to 75 per cent. Only those students who have the required attendance will get the benefit of the new schemes,” he said.