Dr. Ambedkar Medhavi Chhatravriti Yojna to Other Backward Classes Students(DAMCYOBCS)

No application window stays fixed for this award from year to year; the Directorate notifies each cycle's schedule through newspapers and on the ePASS website when it opens (HP ePASS FAQ). The practical reading: the window follows the matric result season, so have the Tehsildar-issued certificates ready before the advertisement appears rather than after.

Three identity conditions sit in the rules: permanent residence in Himachal Pradesh, membership of an Other Backward Class as declared by the Himachal Government, and admission after matric to a recognized institution, which may be a professional or technical course or the school stream (myScheme record). The category test follows the state's own OBC list, so a caste recognized as OBC elsewhere but not by Himachal Pradesh does not qualify.

The fourth condition is the one no form can supply: a place among the top 1000 OBC candidates in the board's matric merit. A student outside that band has nothing to apply with, however strong the rest of the file, and a student inside it does not need to outscore anyone again. Where you study next is flexible on geography, the state pays even when the institution sits outside Himachal, but not on recognition, an unrecognized institution breaks the claim (HP ePASS, state sponsored schemes).

Neither the notified guidelines nor the myScheme entry for this award prints an exclusion list, a gap that fits its design: the merit band excludes everyone else on its own. Two rejections do operate in practice on the Directorate's portal: a renewal candidate who files as a fresh applicant has the application rejected outright, and a paper form submitted offline is returned to the sender with directions to file online (HP ePASS FAQ; HP ePASS, state sponsored schemes).

The award runs a maximum of two successive years after matric, and the second year is not automatic: renewal depends on satisfactory performance in the first year of the course. For the school stream, renewal into the 10+2 class is judged on the internal examinations of the 10+1 class (HP ePASS, state sponsored schemes). File the second-year application as a renewal, under the same registration, never as a new candidacy; the portal treats a repeat fresh application from a renewal candidate as a ground for rejection (HP ePASS FAQ).

Each eligible student receives Rs 18,000 a year, paid for each of the two successive years after matric. The figure dates from the state's 2022-23 budget, which lifted the long-unrevised rates of this and four other Himachal merit scholarships in one announcement, and the Higher Education Department notified the revision for both the OBC and SC versions of the scheme (Budget Speech 2022-23, Government of Himachal Pradesh; scheme guidelines, Department of Higher Education). There is no per-class slab and no separate hostel or book component in the published benefit; the cash amount is the whole award.

Check the figure against the page you are reading, because the older rate still circulates. The Directorate's own ePASS description still states Rs 10,000 per annum for the OBC award (HP ePASS, state sponsored schemes).

The document list rewards early preparation, because its two hardest items come from the revenue administration, not the school. The OBC category certificate and the parental income certificate must each be issued by an officer not below the rank of Tehsildar, and the Himachali bonafide certificate proves the residence condition (myScheme record). The bank proof must belong to the student's own account, the portal asks for the latest statement of the student's bank account during verification (HP ePASS, state sponsored schemes). An income certificate appears in the list even though the notified scheme sets no income ceiling; treat it as a document to furnish, not a cutoff to clear (scheme guidelines, Department of Higher Education).

Two portals appear in the scheme's own official material, and both are real. The scheme's published FAQ points applicants to the National Scholarship Portal at scholarships.gov.in (myScheme record). The Directorate of Higher Education's own e-scholarship portal, HP ePASS at hpepass.cgg.gov.in, lists the scheme among its state sponsored schemes with a full online flow, and its FAQ routes Himachali students to ePASS for state and centrally sponsored schemes other than the minority and disability scholarships (HP ePASS FAQ). Confirm the current year's channel with your head of institution when the cycle is advertised; whichever portal opens the form, the paper trail below stays the same.

On ePASS the sequence is fixed. Register with your Aadhaar credentials, name, date of birth, category and a mobile number or email, the password arrives by SMS or mail. Fill the form in six parts, primary details, candidate details, present institution, contact, bank and certificates, across as many sittings as you need, then finalize and print. The printout goes with the documents to your head of institution, who verifies the application online and forwards the attested form with the candidate list to the Deputy Director of Higher Education for schools within the state, or to the Directorate for professional, technical and out-of-state institutions (HP ePASS FAQ; HP ePASS, state sponsored schemes).

Tracking is built into both portals. On ePASS the application forwards to your institute automatically after submission, and you can check its status at any stage by logging in, the homepage also carries a check-status link that works without a login (HP ePASS FAQ). On the National Scholarship Portal, the students menu carries Application Status and a separate Track Your Payment option (National Scholarship Portal).

There is no interview, no fresh test and no discretion in the pick: selection is strictly on merit as declared in the board's matric result, and the administrative work is compilation, heads of institution collect and verify the applications, the district's Deputy Director consolidates them, and the Directorate cross-checks the lists (HP ePASS, state sponsored schemes). Under the scheme's notification, disputes go to the Director of Higher Education, whose decision can be appealed to the Secretary (Education) to the state government (scheme guidelines, Department of Higher Education).

The two-year cap and the performance-linked renewal are the scheme's own binding terms (myScheme record). The portal adds terms of its own that decide real cases: after you press finalize, the form forwards and locks, and while most fields can later be corrected through the institute or the state, a few, parental income, mobile number and email among them, stay outside your reach, with any correction made at those levels conveyed back to you by SMS or email (HP ePASS FAQ). Submission is online only; an offline form is returned unprocessed (HP ePASS, state sponsored schemes).

The scheme sits with the Directorate of Higher Education, Himachal Pradesh, Shimla-171001. Portal and application queries go to hpepass2013@gmail.com, the Directorate's email is dhe-sml-hp@gov.in, and its fax is 0177-2812882; the ePASS contact page also lists a named dealing official against the Dr. Ambedkar Medhavi Chattarvriti Yojna for SC and OBC students, so a stuck file can be chased scheme-wise rather than through a general helpline (HP ePASS, contact page).