Border Areas Scholarship, Meghalaya

What is the Meghalaya Border Areas Scholarship?

Border Areas Scholarship is a state stipend paid by the Directorate of Higher and Technical Education (DHTE), Education Department, Government of Meghalaya, to students whose families live in villages notified as border area villages by the Border Areas Development Department. It appears on the DHTE list of scholarship schemes simply as Border Areas Scholarship, and inside the Directorate's own handbook under its longer administrative title, the Scheme for granting subsidy to students from Border Areas under the Border Areas Development Programme. Students in the West Khasi Hills, South West Khasi Hills, East Khasi Hills, West Garo Hills, South Garo Hills and South West Garo Hills districts along the Indo-Bangladesh boundary are the main constituency.

According to the DHTE scholarship handbook, the scheme exists because of a specific historical injury. Following the partition of India in 1947, people living along the Indo-Bangladesh border suffered acute economic distress when normal trade channels with the neighbouring country closed. The handbook records that many students from border areas gave up study after the lower primary stage because of their parents' economic difficulties, and that students from those areas were consequently handicapped compared with those living in non-border areas. The subsidy was introduced to remove that handicap, covering border area students in L.P., M.E. and High Schools and Colleges up to degree level.

The most distinctive feature of the scheme is that it is not exclusive. The DHTE handbook states that this scheme is a grant or subsidy only, so a student enjoying this scholarship can also enjoy any other scholarship scheme. Most Meghalaya scholarship schemes bar double benefit; Border Areas Scholarship deliberately does not, and the same student can hold, for example, a post-matric scholarship for Scheduled Tribe students at the same time.

How much does the Border Areas Scholarship pay?

The DHTE handbook publishes the rates at the post-matric stage as follows.

Two points follow from the table. The award is merit-sensitive at the school stage, a first division earns four times what a third division earns, but course-based at the college stage, where the division does not change the rate. And the ceiling is Rs 500 a month for engineering, technical and agriculture courses, which is the largest single figure in the scheme.

The handbook is a published compilation whose rates were valid up to the year of its publication, and it says so itself. Anyone planning around a figure should confirm the current rate with the DHTE Scholarship Cell before treating it as settled, because the Directorate revises rates administratively without amending the handbook.

Who is eligible for the Border Areas Scholarship?

A student is eligible if:

• The student's village is included in the list of notified border area villages issued by the Border Areas Development Department. That list is kept in the office of the DHTE, General Branch.
• Both the father's and the mother's income from all sources is derived from the border area. This is a joint condition; income earned by either parent outside the border area defeats it.
• The student is studying at L.P., M.E., High School or College level up to degree, with rates published for the post-matric stages listed above.
• The student has been promoted in the annual examination, since the subsidy is awarded year-wise on the basis of promotion examinations.
• The student maintains good conduct, regular attendance and satisfactory progress.

A student cannot apply, or is not eligible, if:

• The village is not on the notified border areas list. No certificate from a headman can substitute for notification by the Border Areas Development Department, which is why the Border Areas Development Officer's countersignature exists.
• Either parent is in government service. The rules state that government service is not eligible for the subsidy or scholarship.
• The parents' income comes from outside the border area, breaking the both-parents condition.
• The student is enrolled for B.Ed., Ph.D. or M.Phil., all three of which the rules exclude by name.
• The student left the course before completing it, which suspends the scholarship.
• The student takes part in political activities or demonstrations, which the rules warn will entail loss of the scholarship.

What documents are required?

The form's own footnotes are blunt about quality control: incomplete and defective applications will be rejected, and late applications received after the last date will not be considered. The declaration on the form also gives the Government the right to recover the entire amount received, by whatever means it thinks proper, if any information is later found to be false.

How to apply for the Border Areas Scholarship

1. Confirm your village is notified. Check with the Border Areas Development Officer for your area, or with the DHTE General Branch in Shillong, which holds the list of notified border area villages.
2. Collect the prescribed application form — the revised Government of Meghalaya form for students residing in a notified border village, from your institution or from the Directorate of Higher and Technical Education.
3. Fill in the personal particulars: name and age, permanent village, the Legislative Assembly constituency where you reside with your part and serial number in the electoral roll if you are 18 or above, and the same electoral details for your father and mother, or for your guardian where both parents have died.
4. Fill in the study particulars: name of the institution, class, community, the last examination taken and passed with the year, and the division or class obtained; because the school-stage rate depends on the division.
5. Get Annexure I signed by the Head of the Institution, with name in full, designation and office seal.
6. Get Annexure II signed by the Sirdar or Headman of the village where your parent or guardian permanently resides, certifying physical residence in that village and district.
7. Get Annexure III countersigned by the Border Areas Development Officer in whose jurisdiction you and your parents reside.
8. Attach attested copies of every certificate and marksheet, sign the declaration, have a parent or guardian countersign it, and submit the complete application to the Director of Higher and Technical Education, Meghalaya, Shillong, through the Head of your Institution, on or before the last date printed on the form.

There is no online application route published for this scheme. The DHTE lists several other schemes it administers, including the centrally sponsored post-matric and pre-matric scholarships that are applied for online at the National Scholarship Portal, but Border Areas Scholarship is handled on paper through the institution.

How is the scholarship processed and paid?

The completed application travels from the institution to the Directorate, where the final annexure of the form is reserved for office use: the amount passed for payment is entered in figures and words, checked by the dealing assistant, and signed by the Director or Deputy Director of Higher and Technical Education, Meghalaya, Shillong. The award is made year-wise on the basis of promotion examinations, so a continuing student is not carried forward automatically. The form is marked Fresh/Renewal and has to be filed again for each session.

Because the award is expressed as a monthly rate, the practical question of when money arrives is settled by the Directorate's disbursement cycle rather than by the scheme rules, which do not fix a payment calendar. Students should follow up through the Head of the Institution, which is the channel the Directorate uses for correspondence on these files.

Why Border Areas Scholarship applications get rejected

• Village not on the notified list. The single most common reason, and the one the BADO countersignature is designed to catch before the file leaves the district.
• Missing BADO countersignature. Annexure III is a separate certification from the headman's residence certificate in Annexure II, and applicants frequently submit one without the other.
• A parent in government service, which the rules exclude outright.
• Parental income from outside the border area, breaking the condition that both parents' income from all sources be derived from the border area.
• Course excluded, B.Ed., Ph.D. and M.Phil. applications will not be entertained.
• Incomplete or defective form, which the form's own note says will be rejected rather than returned for correction.
• Late submission, which the note says will not be considered at all.
• Division not stated or certificates not attested, which stalls the determination of the rate at the school stage.

What are the key dates?

The scheme has no fixed calendar deadline published year-round. The prescribed form carries a blank last date that the Directorate fills in for each session, with the instruction that the application be submitted to the Director of Higher and Technical Education through the Head of Institution on or before that date. The practical answer is to watch DHTE notifications and to ask your institution early in the academic session, because the same form warns that late applications will not be considered.

The scheme's fixed numbers are the rate bands, Rs 50, Rs 100 and Rs 200 a month at the school stage by division, Rs 300 at degree level, Rs 400 at post-graduate level and Rs 500 for engineering, technical and agriculture courses.

Where do you raise a grievance?

• Directorate of Higher and Technical Education, Meghalaya, Kenilworth Road, opposite Shillong Public School, Laitumkhrah, Shillong 793003
• Scholarship Cell, Office of the Director of Higher and Technical Education, at the same address
• Email: dydhtechnical[at]gmail[dot]com, the address the Directorate publishes for queries on its scholarship pages
• Border Areas Development Officer for your area, on questions of whether a village is notified
• Education Department, Government of Meghalaya, megeducation.gov.in

The DHTE has not published a dedicated telephone helpline for this scheme, so written correspondence through the Head of the Institution or by email is the reliable route. There is no fee for applying, and no agent or middleman can charge a student to have a name added to the Border Areas Scholarship list.