Mangaluru: The Karnataka Minorities Development Corporation Limited will extend the benefits of Arivu education loan scheme to PU students from the next academic year, said MLA J R Lobo.

He was speaking after distributing benefits from the Corporation to beneficiaries of Mangaluru South Assembly constituency on Tuesday.

Lobo said that the Arivu scheme was for students from the minority communities in the state, who are pursuing higher education – now it will be extended to PU students.

“Under the scheme, the Karnataka Minorities Development Corporation extends education loan to students from the minority communities with 2% service charge to pursue their higher education and the loan is recoverable after the completion of the course,” he explained.

Students of minority communities, who wanted to pursue professional courses such as medicine, engineering, dental, postgraduate courses, diploma courses, nursing, BEd, BBM, BCA and ITI, were provided financial assistance till the completion of the course as loan, he added.

Lobo said, “The Corporation has also initiated a programme to lend Rs 1 lakh for widows and divorcees to start self-employment. Out of Rs 1 lakh, Rs 50,000 would be provided as subsidy from the Corporation. Beneficiaries should make use of the loan/subsidy amount effectively.”

MLA Ivan D’Souza the Karnataka state government had allocated Rs 2,750 crore for the welfare of minorities in the budget last year. “We have demanded Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to make budgetary allocations for the welfare of minorities based on the population in the next budget. The demand has also been approved in the Cabinet sub-committee,” he said.

KMDC chairperson M A Gafoor said, “The budget had allocated Rs 330 crore for the Corporation under various schemes. The Corporation has already lent Rs 125 crore under Arivu scheme to students. To bring in transparency and to prevent middlemen from availing of the facilities, the Corporation has invited all the applications online.”

KMDC district manager Sridhar Bhandary said that an amount of Rs 2.25 crore was distributed among 801 beneficiaries of Mangaluru South constituency.

“They are Rs 39.90 lakh to 59 beneficiaries of self employment, Rs 78.50 lakh for 314 beneficiaries of Shramashakti Yojane, Rs 2.40 lakh for 24 beneficiaries of Kiru Saala Yojane, Rs 104.34 lakh for 404 beneficiaries of Arivu scheme.

Under Arivu loan scheme, Rs 15 crore has been disbursed among 4,095 beneficiaries in Dakshina Kannada,” said Bhandary.