The Kerala government on Friday announced that it has earmarked an additional ₹ 200 crore for post-secondary scholarship for students belonging to the Other Eligible Communities (OEC) category.
With this, the government has earmarked ₹5,326 crore for scholarships for Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Other Backward Classes (OBC) and OEC categories this year, a statement from the office of Finance Minister KN Balagopal said.
Mr. Balagopal said that ₹200 crore has been made available for the distribution of scholarships to students belonging to OEC and Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) categories.
This year, ₹ 240 crore was allocated in the budget and was authorized earlier.
“₹200 crore has now been sanctioned as additional allocation,” the statement said.
In this way, arrears in this category can be completely cleared, it said.
He further said that last year, ₹40 crore was budgeted for scholarships, but the government ended up disbursing around ₹358 crore, which included arrears from previous years.
The statement also said that while the first Pinarayi government distributed ₹3,853 crore for scholarships for students from marginalized communities, only ₹2,069 crore was spent during the Oommen Chandy government.
Published – 07 Nov 2025 21:49 IST
