The State Government in association with the banks has kick-started collateral-free education loan for the tribal youths in a bid to bridge the gap existing between higher education and the students belonging to the tribal community.
The scheme was inaugurated on Wednesday by Chief Minister Raghubar Das who also handed over the loan to 10 such students to mark the occasion.
The programme was started statewide on the occasion identifying total 40 Scheduled Tribe students coming mostly from rural areas of the State. Several banks would disburse total Rs 1.96 crore which is expected to go even higher since the maximum loan amount was raised from Rs 4 lakh to Rs 7.5 lakh on the Chief Minister's request.
"Currently just 2,156 tribal students are availing education loan which would be taken up to 5,711 during this academic session. Banks would be charging anything from 9 to 12 per cent as interest while the loan would be without any collateral or security deposit," pointed out MK Gupta, General Manager, Bank of India, the convener bank of the State level Bankers Committee (SlBC).
The community due to various provisions under CNT/SPT Acts was deprived of any kind of loan, including education. The matter had also come for discussion during the Tribal Advisory Committee meetings which had proposed for collateral-free loan for the students in partnership with the State Government.
Addressing the gathering there on the 55th SlBC meeting, the Chief Minister lauded the role the banks played for greater financial inclusion in the State. "We have seen better than targeted performance by the banks in terms of Mudra loan sanctioning.
And now the education loan to ST students is here which has been an area of concern for the community. I had raised the matter during the last SlBC and it is a great pleasure that banks have made it possible," said he.
The CM while drawing attention towards rural poverty, especially among deprived sections of the society, termed it as a main cause behind the state of literacy prevailing in the State.
"The State remained backward due to poor literacy. We have to bring it up to 90 per cent and education loan is going to play a crucial role in this," observed the CM.
He, at the same time, also expressed hope that meritorious students of the State would come back and work for the betterment of Jharkhand after accomplishing their education so that their homeland can get benefited from their knowledge and expertise.
Assuring the banking fraternity with all help, the CM assured them for speedy digitisation of land records and greater sense of security for conducting .