A mobile app for self-employment loan applicants from the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, Other Backward Caste, minorities and differently-abled communities was launched by the Delhi government on Saturday.
The app for the Delhi SC/ST/OBC/Minority and Handicapped Finance and Development Corporation (DSFDC), which offers loans to help set up small businesses, would have provisions for applications as well as complaints.
At a ceremony held at Talkatora Stadium here, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal launched the app and announced a new scheme for giving coaching to SC and ST category students appearing for competitive exams. The government’s SC/ST Department had a scheme for conducting coaching classes, but now the government would pay the students’ fee at private coaching centres.
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Welfare scheme
“We will start with 100 students in this financial year. In the next year’s budget, we will make provisions for 5,000 students in the scheme... We will give up to ₹40,000 for fees in the best coaching institutes,” said Mr. Kejriwal.
The Chief Minister said another social welfare scheme for giving small loans to street vendors, auto-rickshaw drivers and rickshaw drivers would be announced next month.
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Social Welfare Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam had said on Friday that the scheme would cover coaching for examinations for the civil services, medical, engineering, banking and Group A and Group B jobs in the government. Those students whose family income was up to ₹2 lakh annually would get 100% scholarship, while those with incomes of ₹2 lakh to ₹6 lakh would get 75%, he said.
Complex process
Mr. Gautam had said that the existing loan scheme too had not been working as intended, with the DSFDC giving out very few loans and the process being complex. Along with the app, the government had simplified the process of applying, removing the requirement for depositing blank cheques. The payments would now go directly to the account of the beneficiary, he said. The government would also give an additional ₹2,500 to each student every month during the course.