Govt mulling increasing scholarships for differently-abled

Chitrakoot (UP), Sep 6 (PTI) The government is mullingincreasing the number of scholarships for differently-abledstudents, HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar today said. "Currently, around 2,500 scholarships are being providedto differently-abled students. We are thinking about how thisnumber can be increased and how differently-abled students canavail more benefit from these programmes," he said. Javadekar was speaking at the convocation of theJagadguru Rambhadracharya Handicapped University here, hisfirst such event after taking over as the HRD Minister. Underlining his priorities, he said after assuming chargehe received requests from many universities to attendconvocation ceremonies but he chose to begin with this uniquevarsity. He said two senior officials of the HRD Ministry wouldvisit this university to look for ways to further strengtheneducation for the different-abled. He said differently-abled persons constitute about 3 percent of the population and the focus of the Narendra Modigovernment is to reach out to all sections of the society,including the marginalised and poor. Javadekar and BJP MP Prabhat Jha, who was also present,were conferred honorary D Litt degrees by the university. Lavishing praise on university Chancellor JagadguruRambhadracharya, he said despite not having the gift of sight,he managed to create this varsity which has given high-qualityhigher education to thousands of differently-abled students. In his speech Rambhadracharya said he had run the varsityfor several years now and it was time for it to be turned intoa central university. (More) PTI ADS AAR ZMNAAR