THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The beneficiaries of housing projects from the local self-government bodies can now avail loans from Kerala Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Development Corporation (KSCSTDC). The chairman of the Corporation had requested this through a letter.
Earlier, the permission was given to take loans from scheduled banks, public sector banks and cooperative societies. However, some loan conditions often prohibit banks from disbursing them.
“We give loans to complete the construction of their houses, but what we provide, somewhere around Rs 4 lakh, may not be enough. So, in many cases, the beneficiaries apply for a loan. We have a provision to provide the land documents after reaching a tri-party agreement among the bank, the beneficiary and the city corporation or whichever local self-government body is involved. However, as of now this is available to only people with their own land as banks prefer this,” a Corporation official said.
“In the Thiruvananthapuram corporation, we have PMAY scheme by which we provide Rs 6 lakh for land and Rs 4 lakh for building a house. In this case, also we do allow loans. In cases where the land is not owned by the party, getting such loans is very difficult. In these cases sometimes cooperative societies give loans,” he added.
“We had given a request to add the Corporation to the list. For one, many private banks sometimes mislead the customers where subsidy is concerned. We offer a 6 per cent interest. We give front-end subsidy while banks give back-end subsidy. This will benefit the people. We give loans with either property as mortgage or salary certificates, the same will be applicable here,” said Nazar MA, managing director, Kerala Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation.