Virudhunagar MP B. Manicka Tagore has proposed to set up help desks, one in each block, in Virudhunagar Parliamentary constituency to guide the students on procedures to get educational loans. The first help desk has been opened at Sivakasi.
Mr. Tagore said that though there was an increased awareness of the Union Government's scheme, still there were a lot of parents and students in rural pockets who did not know the basics of the scheme. “Such students run from pillar to post and sometimes end up paying middlemen,” Mr. Tagore said.
The help desks would be manned by Youth Congress volunteers who were being trained on the procedures by representatives of nationalised banks.
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The help desks would be put up in places of public gathering like bus stands and important road stretches for visibility. The students and parents would be told about the documents required. A printed check list had been provided by the MP's office. A copy of the application form and the annexure would be retained by the help desk.
Besides recommending genuine cases to the managers of bank branches concerned by the MP's office, the volunteers would visit the banks and the lead bank manager periodically to ascertain the status of each application, the Congress MP added.
“Ours will be a free service and this would be boldly displayed at all the help desks,” the Mr. Tagore said.
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The desk will function for a couple of weeks before an educational loan mela is organised.
Stating that a large chunk of students from very ordinary socio-economic background had got educational loans, he hoped that more deserving students would benefitted from the new initiative.