A day after starting his second innings, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved major changes in the Prime Minister's Scholarship Scheme (PMSS) to extend its ambit to the wards of state police personnel martyred in terror or Maoist attacks. Modi said he was dedicating his first decision to "those who protect India".
The decision assumes significance as nationalism and national security were the key issues that dominated the prime minister's election campaign. By this decision, Modi has sent out a signal not only to the armed forces but also to his core political constituency.
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Under the new changes, the amount of scholarship has been increased from Rs 2,000 per month to Rs 2,500 per month for boys and from Rs 2,250 per month to Rs 3,000 per month for girls.
According to an official statement by the Prime Minister's Office, the ambit of the scholarship scheme, which is under the National Defence Fund, is extended to the wards of state police officials who are/were martyred during terror/naxal attacks. And the quota of new scholarships for wards of state police officials will be 500 in a year.
The Ministry of Home Affairs will be the nodal ministry in this regard.
The National Defence Fund (NDF) was set up in 1962 to take charge of the voluntary donations received for promotion of the national defence effort, and to decide on their utilisation.
Currently the fund is being used for the welfare of the members of the Armed Forces, Para Military forces and Railway Protection Force, and their dependents. The fund is controlled by an Executive Committee with the prime minister as the chairperson and the defence, finance and home ministers as its members.
The statement said that under the National Defence Fund, the PMSS is being implemented to encourage technical and post-graduate education for the widows and wards of the deceased/ex-service personnel of Armed Forces and Para Military Forces and Railway Protection Force. Scholarships are available for education at technical institutions (medical, dental, veterinary, engineering, MBA, MCA and other equivalent technical professions with suitable AICTE/UGC approval).
Under the PMSS, every year new scholarships are given for 5,500 wards of armed forces controlled by the Ministry of Defence, 2,000 wards of paramilitary forces controlled by Ministry of Home Affairs and 150 wards of forces controlled by Ministry of Railways.
Acknowledging the contribution of uniformed personnel, the prime minister maintained that the availability of scholarship will enable more youngsters from police families to study and excel in different fields. It will have an empowering effect on several bright young minds.
It may be recalled that it was under the first tenure of Modi that a National Police Memorial was built and dedicated to the nation.