Kerala governmnt to take over education loan dues of deceased

Thiruvananthapuram: The state government is considering taking over of the education loan dues in case a candidate who avails of the loan  or the earning member of that family dies.

Chief minister  Oommen Chandy told the Assembly on Wednesday that the government had repeatedly urged the banks to write off education loan dues in such unfortunate cases.  If the banks were unwilling to do it, the state government would take up that responsibility, he said.

“We had taken up the matter with banks during the last three State-Level Bankers’ Committee meetings. Though the banks have not objected to it, they are yet to implement it. It would not cause much obligations to the banks as there would be only around one in thousand such instances.” the chief minister said.    

“Banks could implement it as part of their social responsibility. If they do not implement it even after some time, the state government will take up the responsibility of such loans,”  he said in reply to a submission by Mr K. Sivadasan Nair. The SLBC meeting last week had decided to extend education loans to students admitted in the management quota following strong pressure from the state government.