Mumbai, March 10 More than 93,000 scholarship applications from students seeking higher education are pending verification in Maharashtra, the state government informed the legislative council on Tuesday.
Higher and Technical Education Minister Chandrakant Patil, in his written reply, said that verification is often delayed because students fail to attach the required documents, do not submit hard copies of their applications to colleges, or upload incorrect documents on the portal.
Shiv Sena MLC Manisha Kayande and a few other legislators raised the issue, highlighting concerns that around 1.42 lakh students had been deprived of scholarships over the last five years until December 2025, raising fears that financial constraints could lead to students dropping out.
According to data available on the MahaDBT portal as of February 27, a total of 93,326 applications are awaiting verification, the minister said.
He said that a total of 1,42,383 applications were pending verification until December 2025. However, after instructions were issued to divisional joint directors to expedite scrutiny, action was taken on 49,057 applications.
Breaking down the latest figures, Patil said that 81,753 of the pending applications relate to the current academic year (2025-26), while 11,573 are backlog cases from the last four years.
The state government currently implements 14 scholarship schemes through the MahaDBT online portal.
The data presented by the government showed that between 2021-22 and 2025-26, it had received a total of 9,68,597 applications under these schemes, of which scholarships had been sanctioned for 7,80,495 students.
"A total fund of Rs 708.41 crore has been distributed to beneficiaries during this period, ensuring effective use of government funds," Patil said.
The minister also dismissed concerns about students dropping out due to non-receipt of scholarships, saying that the department has not received any complaints about students discontinuing their education because of this.