India, Dec. 22 -- The Maharashtra government runs multiple scholarship schemes to support students pursuing higher education however a staggering 1.42 lakh students have been deprived of scholarship benefits over the last five academic years, an application filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act on December 5 has revealed. The response received on December 18 by Amar Ekad, president, Care of Public Safety Association, raises serious concerns about administrative efficiency (or the lack of it) and its impact on students from economically weaker sections.

As per data obtained through the RTI query, only 723,133 out of a total 969,029 students who applied for scholarships through the state's MahaDBT portal during this period have re...