Tamil Nadu: Education loan rejection drives parents to self immolation bid

OOTY: The parents of a college girl in Wellington attempted self-immolation in front of the Syndicate Bank branch at the Wellington Cantonment near here, apparently dejected over rejection of an educational loan to their 18-year-old daughter. While there have been complaints about banks turning a deaf ear to most educational loan applicants in Nilgiris, on Friday the issue took a serious turn when Edwin (45), an auto driver from Sanitorium area near Wellington, and his wife Sophia (37), attempted self-immolation in front of the bank branch by dousing themselves with kerosene. Bank security staff and others nearby foiled the attempt in time and police secured the duo for enquiry. Mr. Edwin told the media briefly that though his daughter, doing hotel management degree course, applied for an educational loan to the bank three months ago, officials  rejected her application for no valid reasons.

Alleging that bank officials were now demanding a huge amount as bribe to re-consider the loan application, Edwin stated “Since we are not in a position to pay the college fees of our daughter, we decided to end our lives in front of the bank”. Meanwhile, Mr. S.Janardhanan, president of the Ooty Town Public Awareness Association, noted that banks in the hills behaved indifferently towards the poor when it came to sanctioning educational loans to them. He urged the Nilgiris collector to evolve a transparent mechanism for deciding on education loans.