By: Vijay Kumar Verma, Editor-ICN Group
SHIMLA: Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court, Justice Surya Kant today awarded scholarship cheques to 147 meritorious students of the state at a function at Shimla. The selected students were awarded scholarship cheques amounting to Rs 24,000 per annum under the SJVN Silver Jubilee Merit Scholarship Scheme. Awarding scholarships Justice Surya Kant congratulated the recipients and applauded SJVN for its scheme of providing financial assistance to the meritorious students for pursuing higher education.
Earlier, welcoming the chief guest, Nand Lal Sharma told that SJVN Foundation had launched Silver Jubilee Merit Scholarship Scheme in the year 2012 to inculcate competitive spirit among students and assist them pursue higher studies in their desired streams of education. The students, he told had been selected on the basis of their academic performance in class 12 CBSE, ICSE and state Board examinations. In addition to the 147 students of Himachal Pradesh, 103 meritorious students from other states too will be awarded scholarships shortly he told.
These students are already pursuing their graduation courses in various streams of their choice. Among the beneficiaries is Miss Vidya Sharma from the state who scored 99.40 percent in her class 12 CBSE and is pursuing commerce graduation from Sri Ram College of Commerce at Delhi. The scholarship cheques amounting to Rs. 24,000 each are on account of their first year of study and are given at a rate of Rs.2000 per month.
Nand Lal Sharma informed that SJVN had launched this Silver Jubilee Merit Scholarship Scheme to coincide with the Silver Jubilee year of its formation in 2012. He told that beginning with 150 scholarships to the students of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the scheme was later expanded to include students from other states of its operations. The number of beneficiary students, he told, had reached 1387 this year and the company was providing scholarships worth about Rs. 2 crore to these students every year. Currently, he told, around 1000 students are getting the benefits every year. It is a matter of great satisfaction for SJVN, that a number of the beneficiaries were already gainfully employed in multinational companies getting pay packages around Rs. 5 lac per annum. A large number of students he added were also pursuing postgraduate studies in the field of Accountancy, Law, Business Management and Medicine.
Sharma also expressed his happiness that a good number of beneficiaries included girl students and in the current list also as many as 116 beneficiaries are girls. In the very first year of commencement of the scheme, he told, there were 69 girl students amongst 147 beneficiary students. This is another step towards women’s empowerment he said.
Talking about the various CSR measures being undertaken by SJVN, Sharma told that the company was providing a budget of about Rs. 38 crore for activities related to Health and Hygiene, Education and skill Development, Infrastructure and sustainable Development etc. He told that during the past year an expenditure of Rs.6.86 crore had been incurred on the activities related to promotion of education and skill development alone.
The Silver Jubilee Merit Scholarship Scheme, Sharma informed, aims at inculcating competitive spirit among students and assists them pursue higher studies in different streams. In order to sustain their competitive spirits, Sharma told, SJVN had made it compulsory for the beneficiaries to qualify each annual examination of the study to determine continuation of the scholarship.
Sharma further told that there was a special consideration for the students from BPL families and Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) as out of the total number of scholarships, 30% and 10% respectively, are reserved for students from these categories.
