Bhubaneswar, July 28: The option of e-medhabruti or online scholarships has been made available permanently on the higher education department’s website.

The step aims to make students aware of grant provisions as the response to a separate e-medhabruti website has not been encouraging since its launch in 2011 to facilitate online applications.

“The number of manual applications we used to receive earlier was more than what we get online now. The facility could not reach remote areas due to lack of awareness and Internet connectivity in those remote areas,” said an official of the department.

However, with the popularity of online admissions, students have been visiting the department’s website (www.dheorissa.in) on a regular basis. The option of e-medhabruti on this site is expected to attract the attention of students and keep them alert about applying for grants.

“The aim is to generate more awareness among students, especially those in rural areas. Though one can apply for scholarships during August and September, they can also check the process of filling up application forms beforehand,” the official said.

In another development, the ST and SC development department has come up with a specialised software for disbursing pre-matric scholarship money to more than 2.5 lakh SC and ST girl students.

This scholarship offered by the state government aims to help girl students of Classes IX and X from disadvantaged communities to avail of higher education. Chief minister Naveen Patnaik had launched the programme on July 1.

The advanced software covers all aspects of scholarship management including records of schools and that of eligible candidates. There will be provision of disbursement of scholarships in the accounts of candidates to save time.

The software also helps trace beneficiaries through an integration with Google maps to provide more details of applicants and biometric data of the eligible students. This will reduce the chances of fake or ghost beneficiaries availing of the grant, said an official of the ST and SC development department.

Since it involves financial transaction, special efforts have also been made to safeguard the sensitive data.