Bengal facilitates edu loan worth Rs 54.39 cr

Kolkata: "I am thankful to the state government and specially to our honourable Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for the initiative. It will surely help me and many other students like me to continue with their studies," said Avik Dey of Budge Budge in South 24-Parganas who has benefitted in pursuing higher education becuase of the Bengal government's initiative of Students' Credit Card (SCC) scheme.

And Avik is not alone in getting the benifit of the scheme—a brainchild of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee— as Bengal has facilitated education loans worth Rs 54.39 crores under the Students' Credit Card scheme in just four months time to pursue higher studies.

It was Banerjee's pre-poll assurance and was launched on June 30 benefitting around 1646 students till date helping them get Rs 10 lakh education loan with the state government as guarantor. Son of an Asha worker, 22-year-old Mrinal Pradhan—who is originally from Birpara Tea Garden in Alipurduar—received a loan of Rs 1.15 lakh from West Bengal State Cooperative Bank under SCC scheme to complete the last two semesters of his B.Tech course. His father runs a small business. But the pandemic situation had turned the situation worse for the family creating obstacles for Mrinal to complete his remaining semesters.

Similarly, Avik Dey got the loan to pursue his course of Electrical and Electronics Engineering. His loan was sanctioned within 15 days of his application.

The story of Mijanur Rahaman Mallick, a youth from a family of a marginal farmer, is quite similar as the SCC helped him continue his BE in JU.

At present the State Cooperative Banks and District Central Cooperative Banks and all public sector as well as private banks are issuing the credit cards and sanctioning loans under the scheme. The loan can be used for tuition fees, to bear the cost of books, study materials, laptop, tablets besides using it to bear the cost of project or thesis submission, cost of study tour and hostel expense or cost of living outside residence to pursue higher studies.