DMs told to expedite Students' Credit Card loans; 200 complains of bank refusal received in a day
KOLKATA: Chief secretary H K Dwivedi instructed all district magistrates to speak with the banks to expedite the process of providing Students' Credit card loans for pursuing higher education.
Senior officials of the state government said that they have received complaints from various students that banks were not providing loans for the Students' Credit card that was offered by the state government and so they could not apply for the card. As a result, it was decided that the district magistrates should speak with the bank mangers to expedite the process of providing students credit loans.
A senior official of the state government said: "The Duare Sarkar camps have started today and on Tuesday we have received complaints from 200 students from various districts that banks are not offering loans for the Students' Credit card.
The students were supposed to get themselves admitted to various top ranking colleges outside the state.
A student said: "We went to the district co-operative bank to apply for the Students' Credit Card, but we have received information that as most of the students repay loans later, they were not providing loans. This has prompted us not to apply for the loan."
The Students' Credit Card Scheme, launched by the West Bengal government's higher education department, enables students to take a soft loan of up to Rs 10 lakh for higher studies.
A student can get a soft loan of up to Rs 10 lakh at a simple interest of 4 per cent per annum from the State Cooperative Bank, its affiliated Central Cooperative Banks, District Central Cooperative Banks and public/ private sector banks. Repayment period for any loan availed under this credit card will be 15 years, including the moratorium/repayment holiday. The student or a parent/ legal guardian can repay the loan amount any time before the stipulated period of repayment.
There will be no penalty or processing fee in case of early repayment. The borrower will get a 1 per cent concession in interest if they have fully used the interest during their study period.
