The State-level Educational Loan Holders’ Welfare Association and the members attached to similar welfare forums across the State will intensify their campaign seeking waiver of pending interest rates on education loans and sanction of more interest-free loans to students.
Leaders of a coordination committee, which has been campaigning to press its demands for the past one decade, pointed out that the custom of charging huge interest on educational loans could not be justified. Candidates contesting in the upcoming election would be made aware of the facts and support would be given only to those who could address the concerns, they affirmed.
The association leaders said that majority of such students who had failed to pay back the interest or principal amount were facing recovery action from both the public and private sector banks. In most of the cases, the parents were held answerable for the delayed or discontinued repayment as they had surrendered a few property documents with the bank at the time of processing the loan. R. Radhakrishnan and T.C Mani, leaders of the Educational Loan Holders’ Welfare Association, said the banks were well aware of the dilemma of students, but, they were not ready to make any changes in the existing policies to benefit students. They said the only option that remained was a policy-level change, which could be achieved with the firm support of politicians and people’s representatives.
For the purpose, the association, with the support of students and parents, would embark on a series of public campaigns mainly to win the attention of candidates to be fielded by various political parties in the Lok Sabha elections. The Union government had come out with some guidelines aimed at addressing the concerns of students, but those were in one way or the other unsatisfactory to the segment, the association leaders claimed.
