The more things change, the more they remain the same. The Maharashtra government may have granted 16% quotas to the dominant Marathas in a populist measure, but a scheme to promote entrepreneurship and self-employment among their youth is still floundering.
Since February 2018, the state-run Annasaheb Patil Arthik Vikas Mahamandal has given out 34,483 letters of intent (LoIs) to 45,062 applicants under its individual interest reimbursement scheme. But only 1,728 applicants have been granted loans worth Rs 88,81,20,542 by financial institutions. Of these, just 458 have applied to the corporation for interest subsidy. The Mahamandal has disbursed interest subsidy worth Rs 66,87,400 so far.
The scheme, where applications and approvals are completely online, is aimed at individuals who want to launch taxi and school bus services, or businesses like dairies, photo studios, garages and service centres. They can seek loans up to Rs 10 lakh and get interest reimbursements up to 12%. Activists said the problem lay in nationalised banks which dragged their feet on loan approvals and co-operative banks, which set tough-to-meet conditions for applicants. The figures speak for themselves. In the group loan interest reimbursement scheme, interest up to 12% is re-paid on loans up to Rs 50 lakh. So far, 57 of 95 applicants have been given LoIs and just three have secured reimbursements. In the third scheme, interest-free credit up to Rs 10 lakh is granted through the corporation's corpus to farmer producer groups for a period of seven years. Here, five groups have been given a total of Rs 50 lakh.
Earlier, DNA had reported about how these schemes had hit a bottleneck in implementation.
"We do not know the actual number of LoI holders who applied for loans. They have to apply to financial institutions for credit, submit project reports and get trained," said Narendra Patil, chairman, Annasaheb Patil Arthik Vikas Mahamandal, while admitting to a dichotomy in numbers of applicants and actual loans approved.
"Frankly speaking, the implementation must pick up... Even though the government has granted reservations to Marathas, the number of government jobs is low. The problem (of unemployment) can be solved if Maratha youth take advantage of these schemes," he explained.
"The scheme is applicant-driven," said Anil Patil, managing director of the corporation, adding in the online process, that applicants had to upload documents like Aadhaar cards and domicile and income certificate to get LoIs. Mauli Pawar, co-ordinator, Maratha Kranti Morcha, Solapur, said while 3,000 youth from the district had secured LoIs, just 50 had secured loans. "Banks are not co-operating with applicants," he charged, adding that the government was instead focussing on a publicity blitz.
Narendra Patil said they were changing norms like increasing the age cut off for loan applicants and appointing facilitators in districts on lines of LIC agents. The Corporation has also designated chartered accountants (CAs) to help applicants prepare detailed project reports for submission to banks.
THE FIGURES SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES
1,728 The number of applicants who were granted loans by financial institutions
458 The number of applicants who were granted loans and have applied to the corporation for interest subsidy
IN NUMBERS
In group loan interest reimbursement scheme, interest up to 12% is re-paid on loans up to Rs 50 lakh. So far, 57 of 95 applicants recieved LoIs and just 3 secured reimbursements
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