Dear sir,
Wonderful and welcome news to those who believe that providing the right environment only can speed up the process of building India's future. Hope this kind of information helps spread awareness of a student's right to an education loan and the bank officials also realize that they cannot get away by denying these privileges.
While giving credit to the Dharmapuri MP for his initiative, we can only hope for other MPs to follow suit. Hope this platform serves the right wake-up call.
Thanks,
N.K.Warrier.
hi all
Large number of complaints are pouring in about the delay in sanction of Education loans and violation of RBI / IBA guidelines. Many of the students and parents have personally met Mr Thamaraiselvan, MP of Dharmapuri and explained their harassment stories.
Classic example of indifference and inhuman approach of a bank
In one of the banks at Dharmapuri, an University rank holder girl student was denied education loan of Rs.20,000/- by their Regional office in writing quoting the reason as she had not scored sufficient marks in the qualifying examination. The girl had scored 59.8% in BA (Literature) as against the University first rank of 60%. She missed the University first rank by 0.2 marks and still the bank had rejected her application on marks ground. The rejection was done by the bank, when the student complained to RBI after waiting for six months. As per the IBA guidelines and recent High Court judgements, no education loan can be rejected on the ground of low marks. If the student had secured admission through merit channel, then he/she is eligible for education loan under IBA scheme.
When the matter was taken up by Mr Thamarasiselvan MP of the constituency with the Bank, they sanctioned the loan within few seconds. That means, the loan application which was not eligible 10 days earlier, suddenly becomes eligible, when it gets escalated.
Such attitude reflected the indifferent, arrogant, inhuman and casual attitude of the concerned Regional Managers and higher officials of the Head office of the bank who might have processed the complaint to RBI also. In our view there may be thousands of such eligible poor students might have been denied further education, because of the attitude of such bank officials. This case is only the tip of the iceberg.
Private bill to punish the bank officials
Mr Thamaraiselvan has already introduced a private bill in the Lok Sabha demanding jail punishment to the Bank officials, if they harass the students and violate the RBI/IBA guidelines. He is highly passionate about Education loans to poor students. He believes that by educating the eligible poor students, the country can develop strong human resources to compete with the global competition.
MPs visit to the banks
After receiving the numerous complaints in his constituency, he started visiting the banks from the last Saturday and advising the Bank Managers to follow strictly RBI / IBA Guidelines. He also discusses with bankers about their problems in considering the loans. He wants the banks to sanction the loans within the stipulated time, if the loan is eligible under IBA scheme.
So far, he has visited five banks. This has triggered a 'wave' in Dharmapuri district. Mr Thamarasiselvan told the undersigned over phone that after completing this exercise, he would submit a detailed report to the Hon'ble Finance Minister Mr P Chidambaram and also discuss with him personally to improve the situation. He said he would also take up in the Lok Sabha during the Budget Session.
His visit to the banks have created interest among the local media. They are publishing this news item prominently for the past two days. This is creating awareness among the banks and students.
Dharmapuri MP Mr Thamaraiselvan has set a good trend. The other MPs also can visit the banks in their constituency and motivate the Managers to follow the IBA / RBI guidelines properly. They can also submit a note on their experience to the Finance Minister.
Higher officials behind such violations to defeat the Scheme
Very sadly, many of the violations of guidelines take place only at the oral instructions of the Regional Managers or General Managers of the bank. Finally, when the violations are escalated, the poor branch managers become the scape-goat. Intentionally or Unintentionally, these officials defeat the very purpose of the Government to enable the poor students to get higher education. Their actions are against the interest of the nation. In such violations, ELTF has been demanding that suitable disciplinary action should be initiated against the concerned Regional / Zonal Managers.
We are not demanding any deviation from the Scheme. We only demand that the banks should follow the guidelines given by RBI and IBA properly.
Srinivasan
Convenor
Education Task Force
www.eltf.in
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