Telangana government stalls loans to kin of Covid-19 victims

HYDERABAD: Days after the BC Welfare department initiated a programme to provide loans to Covid-19 victims, officials stopped accepting applications as hundreds of them poured in, to get financial assistance of Rs 5 lakh.The government had offered the loans to the kin of Covid-19 victims. 

Following the initiative, BC Welfare officials had announced the scheme and directed the District Collectors to issue circulars to accept applications from eligible candidates. However, officials said they had now stalled the process of accepting applications. 

“We expected that only the needy would apply. However, we received hundreds of applications stating that one of their family members had died due to Covid-19,” an official said.

Officials claimed that in some applications, fake details regarding the death of a person had been submitted. They said in some cases, though deaths had occurred due to other causes, the applicants had claimed that their kin had died of Covid-19. 

“We asked the local bodies to submit details of people who died from the virus. Based on the data, we will examine the applications and will consider providing loans,” an official said.

The National Backward Classes Finance and Development Corporation (NBCFDC) and the National Schedule Caste Finance and Development Corporation (NSFDC), along with the State government, had announced to jointly provide the financial assistance. 

Of the Rs 5 lakh loan, Rs 1 lakh is to be given as subsidy and the remaining amount is to be paid back to the government without any interest on it within a stipulated time.