Banks should approach grant of education loans to deserving students as service to society, District Collector C.A. Latha has said.
She was speaking at a district-level review committee meeting for banking development here on Monday here.
Noting that banks acted as a bridge between students and their ambitions for better education, the District Collector said banks should do their best to resolve quickly complaints regarding the disbursal of education loans.
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She said that special consideration should be given to make the process of granting education loans easy.
“Disbursal of scholarships, welfare pensions, and other benefits through bank accounts should be accelerated,” Ms. Latha said.
“The banks should create awareness among the public to not depend on private financiers for financial aid,” V. Raveendran, assistant general manager, Reserve Bank of India, said in his address.
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The Collector also wanted the district’s banking sector to facilitate the flow of credit through bank-linkage loans to Kudumbasree.
Reviewing the performance of the banking sector for the financial year 2012-13, the committee found that banks in Kozhikode distributed loans to the extent of Rs.8,305 crore. This was 139 per cent of the target amount.
An official release by the review panel said loans to the tune of Rs.2,924 crore were distributed in the agriculture sector and Rs.194 crore in the industrial sector in this period. Other priority sectors got loans up Rs.1,576 crore, while loan distribution to non-priority sectors in the district capped at Rs.3,618 crore.
In the financial year 2012-13, the district’s banks allowed education loans to the tune of Rs.157 crore to 3,676 students.
At present, the total investment made by the banks amounts to Rs.16,899 crore. Of this, Rs.14,447 crore will be disbursed as loans this financial year.