Bihar polls: Nitish Kumar announces to waive off education loan under Student Credit Card Scheme

PATNA: Announcing a major relief to the beneficiaries of the state government’s Student Credit Card Scheme (SCCS), Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday said he would waive off entire education loan under the scheme, if the beneficiaries would not be in a position to pay back the loan.
The state government provides education loan upto Rs 4 lakh to an intermediate pass student under the SCCS to pursue higher education.
Addressing an election rally in favour of the NDA candidate in Saharsa district’s Simri Bakhtiarpur assembly constituency, Nitish said his government launched a unique student credit card scheme to help those poor students whose parents were not able to financially support their ward for pursuing higher education. A financial assistance of Rs 4 lakh is provided to a needy student under the scheme.
“I always tell people to help your daughter/ son/ ward to pursue higher education. I always tell students to go for higher education. The government is giving this money (Rs 4 lakh) for pursuing higher education. 'Lautane ki esthiti mein nahi honge to maf kar diya jayega.' If the beneficiary student will not be in a position to return the loan amount, it will be waived off,” the CM said amidst thunderous applause from the audience.
Speaking at another election rally in the same district, Nitish said, “People involved in illegal liquor business wanted to defeat him in this election.”
The JD(U) chief said he was only interested in serving the people of Bihar but illegal liquor lobby affected by the liquor ban was working to defeat the JD(U).
Nitish Kumar had imposed prohibition in the state in April 2016, only four and a half months after coming into power for a third consecutive term in November 2015.
While addressing another rally in Khagaria, the JD(U) chief highlighted the poor law and order condition in the state during RJD’s rule in between 1990 to 2005. He said, “During the previous government of the husband-wife (Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi), kidnapping had become an industry, forcing many traders and doctors to leave the state.”
“No developmental work was done during their regime and there were no institutions during that time. We created institutions and set Bihar on its journey of development,” he said.
Talking about the water related problems faced by the people of Khagaria, the chief minister said, “During my tour of Khagaria region during the Vikas Yatra, I found that the iron content in the water was so high in Khagaria that it could be felt in one's teeth. I decided that unless clean drinking water was not provided in this region, the health of the people will suffer. And we started work on providing clean water to the region”.
Reiterating the JD(U)’s ‘zero tolerance’ policy for communal riots in the state, Nitish told an election rally in Bhagalpur that the past governments had not done anything to ensure justice to the victims of infamous riots of Bhagalpur. “But when we got the opportunity to work, we got the pending cases of Bhagalpur riots re-probed and took action against the people involved in the cases. We gave the victims Rs 2,500 financial aid and later raised it Rs 5,000 after 2013,” Nitish said.