Government has taken a rare step for the first time to allow the Ministry of Minority Affairs to use the scholarship funds earmarked for 2015-16 in the next financial year through an alternative mechanism. This step has been taken by the government to ensure the disbursal of scholarships due in last financial year to Minority students all over the country acknowledging the technical difficulties faced by the students on the new National Scholarship Portal. An official release said, the Ministry has also released an additional fund of 5.75 crore rupees to the University Grant Commission for the Maulana Azad National Fellowship to meet the requirement of pending fellowships of Minority students during 2015-16. <br/>The Ministry said, efforts were on to address the challenges being faced to shift payment of scholarships to Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mode. It said, more than 39 lakh minority students have already received scholarships in their bank accounts under DBT mode. The Ministry distributes scholarship to over 80 lakh students every year.