Abhijit Ray, Kolkata:Bengal Government took the target of giving 15 thousand more student credit cards by November. So far 35 thousand students have been given this credit card. They also get loans for higher education. This time, the state wants to take the number of beneficiary students to 50 thousand in this project. State Finance Secretary Manoj Pant gave this message in a meeting with the representatives of the first tier banks on Friday.New academic year classes start in colleges and universities from this month. The meeting has asked to ensure that new applicants get loans through student credit cards. According to sources in Nabanna, student credit cards were among the topics discussed in the meeting.It is learned that banks have been told to speedily fill outstanding student credit card applications besides issuing 15,000 new credit cards by November. Banks have also been advised to set up internal committees to audit unsanctioned and pending applications. It has also been said to increase the amount of student loans through student credit cards.Recently, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee highlighted the utility of student card at the official function organized on the occasion of Teacher’s Day at Bishwa Bangla Fair premises. He said that with this card, students get a loan for higher education up to 10 lakh rupees. Students can take a loan of 2 lakh rupees if they want, and can also take a loan of 10 lakh rupees.Notably, the state government has arranged several scholarships for the sake of higher education of the students. The Chief Minister has arranged financial scholarships for all students from Scheduled Tribes to General Category. Earlier, students and their parents used to suffer a lot to get loans for higher education. To eliminate that problem, the Chief Minister took up the student credit card project.But the problem is, banks are reluctant to lend on student credit cards despite the state government being the guarantor. The state government authorities sat in a high-level meeting with the banks on the instructions of the Chief Minister to eliminate that problem.
West Bengal set a target of issuing 50,000 student credit cards by November
