Keonjhar: The DMF Scholarship-2023 distribution ceremony was held Saturday at the Keonjhar Auditorium. District Collector Ashish Thakare presided over the ceremony, and the state government’s School and Mass Education Minister Sudam Marndi graced the occasion as the chief guest.
A total of 11,856 students from various categories were awarded scholarship grants exceeding 18 crore rupees.
Addressing the gathering, chief guest Marndi emphasized that a robust education system is the cornerstone of a progressive nation. “The government’s transformative initiatives, such as the 5T programme have yielded significant success. In this context, the special DMF scholarship provided by the Keonjhar district administration and the District Mineral Fund (DMF) is a laudable endeavour,” he said.
Similarly, District Collector Thakare said that the Chief Minister and the Government of Odisha have given utmost importance to the strengthening of the education system. On this occasion, the Collector announced a special scholarship ‘DMF Ananya’ for the female students of Keonjhar, ‘DMF UTKARSHA’ for the students of the district enrolled in national-level educational institutes, a Higher Secondary Scholarship (HSS) for Plus II students and extension of mid-day meal for the students of Class IX and X in government schools of Keonjhar district.
A dedicated portal (scholarship.dmfkeonjhar.in) was also launched by the chief guest and the scholarship amounts were transferred to the bank accounts of meritorious students.
As many as 9,991 meritorious students of Keonjhar district who passed Class X examination from government high schools were awarded a total scholarship amount of Rs14.47 crore, with the 13 block toppers receiving their certificates from the chief guest.
Similarly, 389 meritorious students who passed Class X from Odisha Adarsha Vidyalaya (OAV) were given a scholarship amount of Rs73.85 lakh, with 11 students receiving their certificates from the chief guest. Additionally, 1,472 meritorious students in the higher secondary category were granted scholarships amounting to Rs3.33 crore, and four students received certificates from the chief guest. During the event, 9 candidates who successfully passed the Odisha Civil Service (OCS)-2021 examination from Keonjhar district were felicitated by the chief guest.
PNN