Additional Chief Secretary cum Development Commissioner Amit Khare on Monday said that the Government will guarantee education loan over `7.5 lakh to Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) from next academic year.
He said that the decision was taken because banks used to demand collateral or third party guarantee against any education loan over `7.5 lakh. Below this amount of loan, no collateral is demanded from banks.
“Because of this, the SC/ST/OBC students face difficulty in taking loan for education. To sort out this problem, the Government has provisioned Jharkhand Education loan Guarantee Scheme. Under this, any SC/ST/OBC student can take education loan over `7.5 lakh with Government as a guarantor for it,” said Khare. As per government data, there were 63,338 education loan accounts in the State as on December 31 last year with loan amount of `2,511.54 crores in all.
Under the scheme, State level Bankers Committee (SlBC) will make a portal for education loan. All applications will be put on this portal and reviewed weekly. A list of educational institutions, including all IITs, NITs, AIIMS, central institutions and state level approved institutions will be made for eligibility of education loan. Students who want to avail education loan up to ` 7.5 lakh will be given loan without guarantee as per existing system.
After a meeting with Welfare Secretary Himani Pandey, Secretary (expenditure) Satendra Singh, SlBC GM Prasad Joshi, Tribal Welfare Commissioner Gauri Shankar Minz and officers of Welfare Department, Khare directed the Higher Education Department to make a list of institutions having education loan facility for students. He said that all applications should be submitted with Aadhar number.