DST said it had not received the necessary documents for the scholarship disbursement.
New Delhi:
The Department of Science and Technology (DST) said on Tuesday it had not received the necessary documents, including bank details, for the disbursement of scholarship funds for Aishwarya Reddy, a student of Lady Shri Ram ( LSR) College for Women, who died by suicide last week.
Ms Reddy, an IAS aspirant, died in the Ranga Reddy district of Telangana on November 2. In a suicide note purportedly written by her, the 19-year-old said she did not want to charge her parents with her education costs.
Ms. Reddy has been awarded the Inspire Higher Education Scholarship (SHE) as part of DST’s Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) program. She was eligible for a scholarship of Rs 60,000 per year.
“Like other years, provisional scholarship letters were sent to 9,762 eligible applicants in August of this year.
“Students are advised to upload three simple documents such as bank details, grade sheet and college bona fide / performance certificate, following which the scholarship for the whole year is quickly released. Unfortunately, these documents were not received from Aishwarya, ”the DST said in a statement.
He also appealed to all shortlisted candidates to quickly complete their formalities so that the amount of scholarships can be disbursed as soon as possible.
On Monday, members of the Congress-affiliated National Union of Indian Students (NSUI) demonstrated outside the residence of Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal “Nishank” here against the alleged suicide of Ms Reddy, while the The Left-affiliated Indian Students’ Association (AISA) staged a commotion outside Delhi University’s Faculty of Arts.
A group also protested in front of the DST in Mehrauli.
“We invited five of the student representatives, who were protesting, and showed them all the necessary documents indicating that there had been no delay on our part,” said DST secretary Ashutosh Sharma.
