The Rs. 900 crore Education Loan Repayment Support Scheme announced by the State government was formally launched at a function here on Tuesday.
Speaking on the occasion, Minister for Education C. Ravindranath made it clear that the government would expand the scheme infusing more funds, if need be, to cover all deserving candidates. “The present amount was arrived at on the basis of preliminary statistics gathered for the purpose. A detailed survey will be conducted to bring in all the deserving candidates and we will earmark more funds for the purpose, if need be,” he said.
The students alone cannot be held responsible for the failure in repayment of education loans. “Often, it is the flaws in the system that result in candidates failing to get a job,” he said. The scheme was aimed at extending a helping hand to such students, he said and added that the government would not remain a mute spectator if the financial institutions put undue pressure on students for repayment. The Minister hoped the financial institutions would take the government’s new initiative in its true spirit when they moved ahead with recovery steps.
State to pay 60%
The scheme would benefit those with an annual income of less than Rs. 6 lakh who had availed themselves of educational loans up to Rs. 9 lakh. Under the scheme, the government will repay 60% of those loans, not more than Rs. 4 lakh, listed as NPA by banks. Those who have availed themselves of the loans would have to repay the remaining 40%. However, the banks would have to waive interest on the loan and penal interest, the Minister said.
In his presidential address, V.S. Sunil Kumar, Minister for Agriculture, said the LDF government during the past one year could make successful intervention in many issues that directly affected the life of common man.
