Activists of the National Students Union of India (NSUI) staged a protest here on Friday urging the government to initiate measures to remove the hassles in the way of sanctioning educational loans by banks for students.
Addressing the protest meet, C.G. Madhusudan, State convener of NSUI, said that according to the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Finance, surety or guarantee could not be insisted upon for sanctioning educational loans of up to Rs. 4 lakh by the public sector and commercial banks for poor students desirous of pursuing professional courses or higher education. Even the payment of interest and repayment of the principal amount should be deferred till the completion of the course taken up by students. The guidelines had been issued based on the model loan scheme prepared by the Indian Banks’ Association, he said.
It was unfortunate that the many bank officials in the district had failed to provide loan for students during admission to professional courses this year. Bank officials were delaying the process and clearing the applications. Many banks were demanding signatures of some surety and a guarantee even for loan of less than Rs 4 lakh, he charged.
Some banks had denied educational loan for students whose parents had taken agricultural loans. Delays in advancing educational loans were forcing many students to borrow money from private lenders at high rates of interest, he said.
Mr. Madhusudan urged the Deputy Commissioner and the manager of district Lead bank to streamline the process of sanctioning educational loans to safeguard the students’ interests. It was unfortunate that although the model scheme for grant of educational loans had been prepared by the Indian Banks’ Association, many bank officials in the district were ignorant of that. He urged the Lead bank to create awareness among the banks’ staff members on the guidelines related to granting of educational loans.
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