Not many success stories to showcase about the Modi Government’s ambitious ‘Standup India’ initiative aimed to make marginalised sections financially independent in Jharkhand, the State Government has decided to push its rural bus service hard through the CentreRs s scheme.
The rural transport scheme meant to provide loans to the sections belonging to the scheduled castes, tribes and women for purchasing smaller buses to ply in ‘rurban’ areas mainly is being given top priority and the Government agencies have been told to work in close coordination with banks.
“Apart from filling the gap existing in the transportation sector in rural areas connecting to towns, the scheme has come as an opportunity to improve our tally related to ‘Standup India’ scheme of the Centre. We want the banks to adopt the scheme with open heart and provide top priority while sanctioning loans to the applicants coming forward,” Transport Secretary KK Khandelwal told The Pioneer.
Worryingly the State has managed to generate abysmally low proposals under the scheme. So far just about 48 applications have come up under the ‘Standup India’ programme from all across Jharkhand. When asked about the reasons behind the poor show, a top official of the Planning and Finance Department said that bankers often cite unviability of the proposals submitted to them.
"Bankers say that financially not so sustainable projects are coming to them which are difficult to get finance. We at the Government think the rural bus service would make the proposals viable. That is why the scheme has been kept exclusively under the ‘Standup India’ programme. Now the banks should finance more and more,” he said.
The Government has put the rural bus service under tax free basket with token Re 1 as permit charge. “We have set a guideline under which the DCs would collect applications and send it to the local banks. The banks on their part would have to dispose the applications within 15 days with top priority. We have also instructed road transport authority to issue permits within a week time,” added Khandelwal.
He, at the same time, also referred to some cases coming about the financing institutions in which loans up to Rs 10 lakh, the lower limit kept under the ‘Standup India’ scheme, are being offered.
“Instances like that have come from Ranchi and few other places. This is discouraging for the applicants. When there is a provision to provide loans up to Rs 1 crore then the banks should not do that. It is not possible to purchase a 24-seater mini bus in Rs 10 lakh,” said the Transport Secretary.