Research scholar Vikash Raj diligently completes his paperwork and submits the claim form for his scholarship under the National Fellowship for Other Backward Classes (NFOBC) every month. His perseverance has proved futile since April.

“I have been selected for the NFOBC scholarship based on my performance in the National Eligibility Test (NET). But the scholarship money never came on a regular basis. Most of the time, I had to borrow money from friends and relatives to manage my expenses on studies and accommodation,” Raj, who is pursuing a PhD in political science from Delhi University, said.

The National Backward Classes Finance and Development Corporation (NBCFDC), the nodal agency tasked with the implementation of the scheme, has not released the scholarship amount to students for the last four months, several students told The Telegraph.

The scheme provides 1,000 fellowships every year to OBC students selected through the NET to undertake advanced study and research for MPhil/ PhD degrees. The social justice and empowerment ministry provides funds to the NBCFDC for disbursement to bona fide students every month. The beneficiaries receive ₹37,000 per month for the first two years and ₹42,000 for the next three years, besides a contingency amount.

A research scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) said the students had launched a social media campaign last year against the irregular disbursement of the scholarship amount.

“I was selected for the NFOBC in 2023. I never got the scholarship amount on a monthly basis. It comes once in six months or eight months. I have not received the amount since May this year,” the student, who did not wish to be identified, said.

She said the scholarship recipients had to do a lot of paperwork every month to submit claim forms signed by their supervisor, the head of the department and the registrar in charge of the scholarship scheme.

“It takes a lot of time and effort to get the forms submitted. These formalities, in a way, affect our research work too,” she said.

The student said the NBCFDC had informed some students that the scholarship had not been disbursed because of the unavailability of funds.

“The standard reply from the NBCFDC is that it has not received funds from the social justice and empowerment ministry, leading to the delay in disbursement,” she said.

Raj claimed the recipients of scholarships under the NET-Junior Research Fellowship or the National Fellowship for Scheduled Castes get the amount more regularly than the NFOBC beneficiaries.

An email to social justice and empowerment ministry secretary Amit Yadav seeking his comment on the allegations of scholarship delay is awaiting a response.

On February 2, Congress’s Lok Sabha member M.K. Raghavan had wanted to know the reasons behind the irregular disbursement of the NFOBC scholarship amount. In a written reply, social justice minister Virendra Kumar stated his ministry had sought additional funds from the finance ministry.

“For enhancement of financial outlay of the scheme, this department has sought additional allocation from the department of expenditure,” Kumar had said.