Under fire from students for delayed PMS for STs
Morung Express News
Kohima | November 28
Nagaland Minister for Tourism and Higher Education, Temjen Imna Along Longkumer claimed that there is no corruption, as far as the issue of scholarship was concerned.
The Minister is often at the receiving end of scornful remarks from students on social media platforms on the staggered release of the centrally sponsored Post-Matric Scholarship (PMS) doled out annually to students of the Scheduled Tribes community.
He made the claim at the inauguration programme of a shopping mall in Kohima, on November 28, where Longkumer said that the state government has been maintaining utmost transparency.
According to him, the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs releases the scholarship in two installments. "This year also, we received only 75 percent of the 2nd installment (for 2023-24). So what we received, we have given," the Minister said. Uproar from the students’ community over delayed scholarship has become an annual feature in Nagaland.
However, he maintained that more than 50,000 students have received their scholarship, and that the government has never delayed its contribution or share for even a week “without any Commission, or without any cutting or pocketing.”
In June, this year, he told a press conference, in Kohima, that the PMS for ST students will be released in one installments from 2024-25 onwards
