State Govt. Sets Up Panel To Finalize Guidelines For FAST Scholarship

The Telangana State Government has issued GO 36 to finalize the guidelines for FAST scholarship scheme being introduced from this year. This is in follow up to the  decision made at the 3rd Cabinet Meeting of the Council of Ministers held at 3 P.M. on 16th July 2014. There were earlier reports on the brainstorming of what could end up in this final list of guidelines, including high marks and attendance percentage for students wishing to avail the scholarship.

The Guidelines will be framed by a committee comprising:

• Principal Secretary to Government, Scheduled Castes Development, ST, BC Welfare Departments.
• Secretary to Government., Higher Education Department
• Principal Secretary to Government., PR & RD Department
• Principal Secretary to Government, General Administration Department
• Secretary to Government, Law Department

The GO said “Government of Telangana contemplates to introduce a new scheme  titled as “ Financial Assistance to Students of Telangana (FAST)” to  enable the poor and eligible students to pursue higher studies in the Universities and the Institutions regulated by the Government, which will not only enable access by poor and eligible students to higher education but also increase the gross enrolment ratio, which currently stands at 31 and a meeting was convened on 05-07-2014 to discuss the policy of financial assistance to the students of the newly formed Telangana State.

Students in the State of Telangana include such of those students who are studying post matric courses based on the admissions done in the past and also such of the students who will be seeking admissions to the post matric courses during the current year 2014-15.

With a view to enable the students of Telangana State to get financial assistance, it is proposed to lay down the fundamental principles based on which this policy will operate. FAST shall be made applicable to all the students pursuing ongoing studies and fresh admissions and whose parents were bonafide residents of Telangana State as on 01-11-1956 and shall come into force from the current academic year 2014-15. The Certificates for the bonafide residence shall be issued by the Revenue Department after seeking for information from the applicants through a detailed format to ascertain the bonafide residence status of the parents/grand parents of the students.

The detailed guidelines of the above scheme for implementation during the current academic year 2014-15 will be finalized by the committee of
Principal Secretaries/Secretaries specified above and submitted to the Government for approval.