Thousands of scholars under the National Fellowship for Persons with Disabilities (NFPwD), National Fellowship for Scheduled Caste (NFSC) and National Fellowship for Other Backward Classes (NFOBC) had not received their fellowships since April, after the change in rules by the Finance Ministry. The Maulana Azad National Fellowship of the Minorities Affairs Ministry, too, has been held up.
According to sources aware of the development, a meeting was held by the Prime Ministers Office, where Social Justice Ministry officials were present, on August 12 to address the backlog and it was decided that the UGC would continue to disburse the fellowships under the NFOBC, NFSC, NFPwD and MANF till September 30. After that, the respective Ministries would have to come up with their own mechanism to disburse the fellowships.