New Delhi: For the second time in less than a year, the disbursal of stipends under the Maulana Azad National Fellowship (MANF) has stalled, with scholars across universities reporting delays of three months.
Last year, after more than seven months of non-payment, the Ministry of Minority Affairs had said pending stipends were released following approval from the finance ministry in July.
The release came after several Opposition MPs wrote to Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman seeking clearance. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also met MANF scholars and wrote to Rijiju flagging their grievances.
The present disruption comes amid an ongoing re-verification exercise by the ministry, which has linked tighter scrutiny of minority welfare schemes to concerns over duplication and alleged misuse flagged in recent years.
A ministry official told ThePrint that several states, including Assam, West Bengal, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, as well as Jammu and Kashmir (a Union Territory) have either flagged duplication concerns or are conducting police inquiries.
The official added that the finance ministry’s approval for MANF was granted for a limited period and that further releases were contingent on reports from states, which the minority affairs ministry had not yet received.