The Tripura government has been contemplating filing FIR against 34 tribal students who submitted false income certificates to get post-matric scholarship, an official said here on Thursday.

A senior Tribal Welfare Department official said that the department has served show cause notices to 34 tribal students for submitting fake income certificates to get post-matric scholarships from the department.

“We will wait for replies from the 34 students till April 16. If they failed to reply to the show cause notices by April 16 or if their replies are not satisfactory, then we would register FIR against all the 34 students,” the official said.

He said that over 35,660 tribal students had applied for post matric scholarship through the National Scholarship Portal (NSP) during the 2023-24 academic year and 34,436 students were granted scholarships amounting to Rs 68.13 crore.

As a part of the scholarship, the government bears the entire fees of the eligible students of the educational institutions to pursue different courses.

When the Tribal Welfare Department officials conducted a thorough scrutiny of the documents submitted by the concerned students, it was found that 34 students belonging to different districts had applied for post-matric scholarship for the 2023-24 academic year through the NSP uploading bogus income certificates.

Submission of any forged income certificates or any other required document seeking scholarship or any other financial support constitutes embezzlement of public money and official document forgery and cheating the authority amounts to a criminal offence, the official clarified.

Out of the 34 students, three belong to Gomati district while four from Khowai district, 8 from West Tripura district, 13 from Sepahijala district, two each from Dhalai and south Tripura districts, one each from North Tripura and Unakoti district.