Promise kept: Mamata launches Student Credit Card scheme

KOLKATA: In yet another milestone in the education sector, the Mamata Banerjee government on Wednesday launched the world's biggest state-run scheme — Student Credit Card — facilitating soft loans of up to Rs 10 lakh, at a minimal interest with the state government being the guarantor, to undertake higher education.

"The Student Credit Card scheme is launched to make the dreams of students come true. We are proud of the moment as it is a unique scheme and first such initiative across the globe. Monetary issues will no longer remain a barrier between the dream and reality of becoming doctors, engineers, professors, teachers, IAS and IPS officers. Students are our pride and they are our future," Banerjee said after launching the scheme from Nabanna in which vice-chancellors of all universities in the state and senior officers from all districts were present virtually.

State Education minister Bratya Basu and Principal Secretary of Higher Education department Manish Jain also attended the programme.

Banerjee has also alerted concerned officers to ensure that at no cost any unscrupulous person should be able to adversely affect the project by adopting wrong means. She urged the officers to develop a robust mechanism that "cannot be decoded" to disturb the programme, which would lead to inconvenience of beneficiary students.

Any student residing in Bengal for more than 10 years can avail the loan at a minimal interest rate soon after getting promoted to Class X. It can be availed till the age of 40 years. "We have fixed the maximum age limit to 40 years considering that there are many people who discontinued their studies in between for various reasons, including monetary issues," Banerjee said, adding that applying for the same is very easy and simple.

One can log onto Egiye Bangla website or the website of the Higher Education department to apply for the same. One may also log onto the dedicated portal wbscc.wb.gov.in or can call for assistance at the toll free number 18001028014.

Under the scheme, one may also avail the facility even if studying in various coaching institutes for appearing in different competitive examinations including engineering, medical, law, IAS, IPS, WBCS, SSC, UPSC, PSC and pursuing undergraduate, postgraduate courses including professional degree, diploma courses and research at doctoral or postdoctoral level or other similar courses in schools, Madrasahs, colleges, universities and other institutes like IITs, IIMs, IIESTs ISIs, NLUs, AIIMSs, NITs, XLRI, BITS, SPA, NID, IISc, IIFTs, ICFAI Business School, etc within or outside the country.

The loan can be availed from state cooperative banks and its affiliated central cooperative banks and district central cooperative banks, public or private sector banks operating in the state.

Banerjee also announced that there would be a life cover in the name of the student up to the loan amount sanctioned. The beneficiaries can repay the loan in a period of 15 years.

The Student Credit Card may be used to avail loans to meet expenses, including course fees, accommodation expenses, undertake study tours, project works and thesis. It can also be used to buy books, computers, laptops, tablets and other related equipment. One can incur expenditure up to 30 per cent of the total loan sanctioned for non-institutional expenses for the whole course of study and up to 20 per cent of the total loan sanctioned can be used as living expenses for the duration of the course.

It can also be used to meet the expenses for caution deposit, building fund, refundable deposit, examination fees, library and laboratory charges. The online portal has to be used to report the expenses incurred. An applicant has to provide name, date of birth, Aadhaar card number, class X registration number, name of institution, course type, name and duration.

Most importantly, self declaration by a student as appended in the application form will be accepted. The application received by the Higher Education department through the concerned institution will be forwarded to the bank for sanction and issuance of credit card after thorough verification. The concerned bank will sanction the applications after due examination and issue the credit card in physical form complying necessary formalities as per the RBI guidelines.

There will be a nodal officer for maintaining the web-based portal at the department, institution and the bank level who shall have permission to access the student's dashboard availing loan under this scheme.