Mangalore: The Tourism Department in the first phase distributed 26 cars to the Twenty-six unemployed persons from SC/ST community at the Deputy commissioner’s office premises here on June 7.

Minister for Youth Services and Fisheries Abhaychandra Jain distributed the cars to the beneficiaries in Rai’s absenceat 1pm. The District Minister in-charge Ramanath Rai was supposed to handover the Taxi’s to the beneficiaries at 12 noon.

The department had 2 Toyota Ethios, 4 Tata Vista, 1 Tata Sumo Gold, 1 Tata Indica Manza and 18 Tata Indica cars. The applicant should be SSLC passed and his family should not be the beneficiary of the same scheme.

The scheme concerned a Rs. 2 lakh subsidy and the rest was loan component at an interest of 12 per cent a year.the basic compact car cost Rs. 4.48 lac, the applicant has the option of upgrading the vehicle to a sedan or a four-wheel drive by depositing a down payment of Rs. 25,000.