The Department of Tourism has announced the list of people who would get subsidy for running tourist taxi service in Hassan district. While the list has 94 names, 28 beneficiaries would be added after verifying objections filed against them.
In 2013-14, when the department announced the scheme, more than 1,000 people belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes had sent in applications. But the final list could be drawn up only now: officials cite shortage of staff and lengthy formalities as reasons for the delay.
M.R. Prakash, Assistant Director of Tourism Department told The Hindu on Wednesday, “I am alone in the office in Hassan and I have to do everything. Three posts are vacant. Naturally, it takes a long time to clear files and get the list of beneficiaries finalised, especially in the light of the fact that there were more than 1,000 applications to be scrutinised. Entering the data itself is a lengthy process.”
The scheme aims at giving a boost to tourism and providing youth a source of income. The department offers a subsidy of up to Rs. 2 lakh to each person. The beneficiaries bear the seed money of 2 per cent of the total cost of the vehicle being purchased by them and the balance is provided as bank loan. The scheme was introduced in 2009-10 and since then 95 youths have benefited from scheme in Hassan district.
Those who applied for subsidy in 2013-14 were waiting for the announcement of the list, so that they could get their loans sanctioned from banks. “As per the procedure, we will send the list to the lead bank of the district. From there, the list will be sent to different banks for sanctioning the loans to beneficiaries. The beneficiaries will get the vehicle only after the loan is sanctioned. Our department will provide the subsidy amount as soon as the loan is sanctioned,” Mr. Prakash said. The beneficiaries would have to wait for a couple of months to get the vehicle. “We should have got the vehicles before March 2014. If it had happened that way, we would have settled in taxi business by now,” said S. Govind, an applicant from Holenarsipur.
More than 1,000 aspirants applied for the scheme in 2013-14
‘The first list has names of 94 persons selected for the scheme’
