Kolkata: The West Bengal Students’ Credit Card (WBSCC), a pet project of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to provide education loans to students in the state is facing a roadblock as the state-owned banks are reluctant to credit the money to the beneficiaries.
Under the ambitious scheme, students can avail of education loans of up to Rs 10 lakh for a simple interest over 15 years. The West Bengal government has allocated Rs 5,042 crore for the scheme.
At a program, on Thursday, where the scheme credit cards were distributed among 5,000 students, Chief Minister Banerjee stressed on the state-owned banks to extend loans to the students under the scheme thereby implying the banks' reluctance.
“I appeal to all the banks to extend loans as much as possible under this scheme. Otherwise, there will be no growth. I would also want to assure the bankers that the loans they give under this scheme will be fully secured since the state government itself is the guarantor for the loans. You will not lose your money,” the CM said.
The chief minister further informed that loans worth Rs 1,542 crore have already been sanctioned to 20,000 students while another 25,000 applications have received provisional sanctions. “This scheme will open a new horizon in the sphere of higher education,” she said.
The Chief Minister urged the bank authorities to participate in the scheme "in a big way".
Considerate of the banks' reluctance in participation in the scheme prompted by the fear of the loan account turning into nonperforming assets, the chief minister assured the bankers about the security of the loans "with the shield of state government security".
At Thursday's event, CM Banerjee also took a dig at the state governor, Jagdeep Dhankar for his proposed 'audit' of the state universities.
Without naming him, Banerjee said, “I heard that some people are demanding an audit for private universities. But I want to assure them that it is the state government only that can demand the audit. Some people are threatening the private universities in the names of audit".
