Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Wednesday informed the Maharashtra Legislative Council that all future admissions to courses offered by institutions such as BARTI, SARTHI, MahaJyoti, and ART will be based strictly on merit. The government also plans to implement a standardised framework for student intake, scholarship distribution, and admission processes across these institutions.

Pawar made the announcement while responding to a question from MLCs Sanjay Khodke and Abhijit Wanjarri, who had raised concerns about the disbursement of rental allowance and contingency funds by SARTHI (Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj Research, Training, and Human Development Institute).

Providing details, Pawar said that between 2018 and 2025, nearly three lakh students benefited from scholarships, tuition assistance and other educational schemes under SARTHI across 83 courses. However, only around 3,000 of these students pursued Ph.D. programs—just 1 per cent of the total beneficiaries—on which the government spent approximately Rs 280 crore. This translates to an average expenditure of Rs 30 lakh per student over five years, a figure Pawar said calls for deeper evaluation.