The Gujarat government announced the Chief Minister Scholarship Scheme (CMSS) on Friday, a financial assistance program for students pursuing higher education.
The beneficiaries will also be eligible for the existing Mukhyamantri Yuva Swavalamban Yojana (MYSY). “This means that the (new) scheme will be a supplementary scheme of MYSY,” stated an official release from the state government.
Students getting admission for diploma courses after class 10 as well as those being inducted into degree courses (D to D) after diploma are eligible for CMSS.
Students with a family income of up to Rs 4.50 lakh are eligible for the scheme. Eligible students who enrol in a diploma programme after completing class 10 will receive financial aid equal to 50% of the fixed annual tuition fee or Rs 50,000, whichever is less.
After completing a diploma, eligible undergraduate students will receive 50% of the tuition fee for engineering and professional courses, or Rs 1 lakh, whichever is less.
Currently, students with 80 percentile marks in classes 10 or 12 are eligible for MYSY. For undergraduate students of medicine in self-financed and government medical colleges, the state government pays 50% of the fee, up to a maximum of Rs 2 lakh per year, while students of dental sciences, homoeopathy, nursing, and physiotherapy receive 50% fee waiver or assistance of Rs 2 lakh, whichever is less.
In addition to the annual assistance of Rs 25,000 or a 50% fee waiver, diploma students and those in engineering, science, arts, commerce, and education courses in self-financed colleges will receive a 50% fee waiver or an annual assistance of Rs 10,000, whichever is lower.
The MYSY scheme, which was established in 2015 with a corpus of Rs 1,000 crore during the Anandiben Patel government, has so far disbursed over Rs 1,100 crore. In response to the Patidar agitation for reservation in college education and government jobs, the scheme was launched.