Bhubaneswar, August 18: The Odisha OBC Forum has demanded that the annual family income limit for students eligible for Pre-Matric and Post-Matric scholarships be increased from ₹2.5 lakh to ₹5 lakh.

Rabi Behera, State President of the OBC Forum, has written to Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, urging the state government to raise the existing income ceiling for students belonging to the Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), and Other Backward Classes (OBC) communities. He sought that the limit be brought on par with the recently enhanced ceiling applicable to children with disabilities.

The demand comes after notifications regarding Pre-Matric and Post-Matric scholarships were published in various newspapers on Tuesday. According to the notifications, students from SC, ST, OBC and other disadvantaged categories are eligible for the scholarships only if their families have an annual income of ₹2.5 lakh or less.

Behera pointed out that the government has recently increased the annual family income limit to ₹5 lakh for children with disabilities. The move is expected to make many more children eligible for scholarship benefits.

The OBC Forum and other social organisations have appealed to the Chief Minister to consider the difficulties faced by students from economically weaker families and direct the concerned authorities to increase the annual income ceiling for SC, ST and OBC students to ₹5 lakh.

They expressed hope that the state government would take a favourable decision in the larger interest of students and ensure that financial constraints do not prevent deserving students from pursuing their education.