Scholarship to Students Pursuing Higher Education in Mainland (Mess Bill Reimbursement)

What is the Scholarship to Students Pursuing Higher Education in Mainland?

Scholarship to Students Pursuing Higher Education in Mainland, commonly called the mess bill reimbursement scholarship, is a Union Territory scheme run by the Directorate of Education, Andaman and Nicobar Administration. The scheme reimburses the mess or boarding charges that a student from the islands pays while studying at a college, university or professional institution on the Indian mainland.

The problem the scheme addresses is specific to an island Union Territory. Andaman and Nicobar has a small number of higher-education institutions of its own, so a large share of island students who want a professional or specialised degree must move roughly 1,200 kilometres across the Bay of Bengal to Chennai, Kolkata, Visakhapatnam or further. Living costs there, and mess charges in particular, fall entirely on the family. The Directorate of Education meets part of that recurring cost by reimbursing the mess bill against documented claims.

According to the Andaman and Nicobar eServices portal, the service is listed under the Directorate of Education (State) as service ID 1820 and is delivered through the ServicePlus platform of the National Informatics Centre. The portal records the service as a Government-to-Citizen (G2C) service that individuals apply for after registering, and it records the deliverable as an output certificate or report together with a monetary benefit.

Key features

• Benefit is a reimbursement of mess or boarding charges already paid, not an advance.
• Applications are filed online only, on the A&N eServices portal.
• Fresh claims and renewal claims follow two different checklists.
• Every claim carries an Agreement and Surety Bond, so the amount is refundable if the claim is later found inadmissible.

Who is eligible for the mainland mess bill scholarship?

You can claim if:

• You are a student of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The scheme is framed for island students who go to the mainland to study.
• You are currently enrolled in a course of higher education at an institution on the Indian mainland, and can produce an admission letter or bonafide certificate.
• You are a day scholar, evidenced by a Day Scholar Certificate from the institution.
• You have actually paid mess or boarding charges and hold the bills for the claim period.
• You can execute the Agreement and Surety Bond with a surety.

You are not eligible if:

• You are studying within the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The scheme is specifically for higher education pursued in the mainland; island students living in local hostels are covered by the separate hostel stipend service.
• You cannot produce a Day Scholar Certificate, because the mess cost is already met through a subsidised institutional hostel.
• You are claiming for a period in which you were not enrolled, had discontinued the course, or had been placed on rolls elsewhere.
• You have already been reimbursed for the same period under another Andaman and Nicobar hostel or mess service; duplicate claims for one period are not admissible, and the declaration you sign says so.

The Directorate of Education has not published an income ceiling or a caste restriction for this particular service on the public service description. Do not assume one either way; confirm your case with the Directorate before you execute the bond. Scheduled Tribe students of the islands should note that they have additional, separate routes, the Post Matric scholarship for tribal students studying on the mainland, and the UT Additional Scholarship, which are handled by the Directorate of Tribal Welfare and not by this service.

What documents are required?

The ServicePlus description records that documents are to be furnished in original and that attestation is not required. Scan each page cleanly — a mess bill photographed at an angle is the most common cause of a query being raised on the file.

How to apply for the mess bill reimbursement scholarship

1. Collect the paperwork first. Get the Day Scholar Certificate from your mainland institution, gather the mess bills for the claim period, and download the Mess Bill Claim Format, Agreement and Surety Bond, Declaration and the fresh or renewal checklist from the service page.
2. Register on the A&N eServices portal. Open eservices.andamannicobar.gov.in, create a citizen login with your mobile number and email, and verify the OTP. The service description states that registration is required for this service.
3. Open the service. From the Directorate of Education list, select Scholarship to students pursuing higher education in mainland in the form of mess bill reimbursement (service ID 1820), or use the Apply for Services menu and search for it by name.
4. Fill the application form with your personal details, island address, institution name and address, course, year of study, claim period and bank account details. Check the spelling of your name against the bank passbook.
5. Upload the enclosures, Day Scholar Certificate, filled Mess Bill Claim Format with bills, signed Agreement and Surety Bond, Declaration and the applicable checklist.
6. Submit and save the acknowledgement. The portal issues an application reference number on submission. Keep it; every follow-up needs it.
7. Respond to any query raised by the Directorate of Education through the portal, and keep the original documents ready for verification.

How do you check the status of your claim?

1. Sign in at eservices.andamannicobar.gov.in with the same credentials used to apply.
2. Open View Status of Application and then Track Application Status.
3. Enter the application reference number, or search by the date range in which you applied.
4. Read the current stage: submitted, under scrutiny, query raised, sanctioned, or payment released.

If the status has not moved for a long period, take a printout of the acknowledgement to the Directorate of Education office in Port Blair (Sri Vijaya Puram) and ask at the scholarship section rather than filing a second application. A duplicate application for the same claim period slows both files down.

Why claims get rejected, and how to avoid it

• Day Scholar Certificate missing or in the wrong format. This is the single enclosure that establishes the claim, and a general bonafide certificate is not a substitute.
• Mess bills that do not match the claim period stated in the form.
• Agreement and Surety Bond unsigned, or the surety's details incomplete.
• Wrong checklist attached, a renewal filed with the fresh case checklist.
• Bank account details mismatched with the applicant's name, which stops the credit even after sanction.
• Duplicate claim for a period already reimbursed under the hostel stipend or hostel mess bill service.

Fix all of these before submission. Once a query is raised on the portal, reply inside the same application rather than starting over.

What are the key dates?

The Directorate of Education has not published a fixed annual last date for this service on the eServices page, and the delivery timeline field is marked NA. Treat the claim as tied to your academic year: file the fresh case as soon as you have the Day Scholar Certificate and the first set of mess bills, and file the renewal for each subsequent period. Because a bond is executed for each claim, holding bills for several years and claiming them together is a poor idea, old bills are harder to verify and more likely to be questioned.

Where do you go for help or to complain?

• Directorate of Education, Andaman and Nicobar Administration, Port Blair (Sri Vijaya Puram), the scholarship section handles claims under this service.
• A&N eServices portal, eservices.andamannicobar.gov.in, the service page, forms and application tracking.
• ServicePlus technical support for portal faults such as failed uploads or login problems: serviceplus-od[at]nic[dot]in, National Informatics Centre, GPOA Complex, Dairy Farm, Port Blair 744102.

No agent or middleman can charge you for filing this claim. The application is made in your own login on a government portal, and the money is reimbursed to your own bank account.