Haryana Government on Thursday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a public sector bank, Punjab National Bank, for giving housing loans, vehicle loans, computer loans, marriage loans to State Government employees under its existing staff loan schemes.

The MoU in this regard was signed in the presence of the Chief Minister Manohar lal. On this occasion, a bank draft of Rs 623 crore, that is the aggregate of total outstanding principal of housing loan - Rs 450 crore, vehicle loan- Rs 86 crore and personal loan Rs 87 crore, was presented to Chief Minister for taking over existing retail loan portfolio, outstanding or payable by the existing employees to the State Government as on February 28, 2017.

Earlier, on November 3, 2016, another MoU was signed by PNB with the State Government to provide retail loans solely by PNB to all the employees of State Government. As on date, PNB has disbursed various retail loans of an amount of Rs. 58.41 crore to 813 employees of the State Government working in various parts of Haryana.

While informing about the MoU, Chief Minister Manohar lal said that this step of the Haryana Government would enable the employees to draw loans much beyond the budgetary allocation which the State Government entitled them to. Moreover, this would do away with the process of discretionary quotas and partial release of loans as against the eligibility. He said that the agreement with the PNB is a historic step of the Government which would help in providing hassle-free loans to the State Government employees on the current existing rate of interest of government, that is, eight per cent per annum. The budgetary allocation for loans can, henceforth be utilized by the Government for the developmental activities of the state, he added.