Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy Friday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who holds the finance portfolio, to direct commercial banks to sanction educational loans to students who have secured admission to professional courses in the state.
In a letter, Chandy has asked Singh to direct the Indian Banks Association to sanction educational loans to all those candidates whose names appear in the rank-list of Commissioner of Entrance Examination, which conducts the qualifying examination to all professional courses in the state.
"There appears some difficulty for those candidates who have secured admission to these courses in the management quota to professional colleges here to get educational loans from the banks. When it comes to sanctioning educational loans, there should be no discrimination to those who secure admission in the management or merit quota," Chandy said in the letter.
There are more than 40,000 engineering seats, besides an equal number in medical and para medical courses. Of these, more than 80 per cent of the seats are in the professional self-financing colleges.
The annual fees for first year admissions for B.Arch course in the self financing college merit quota is Rs.40,000, while in the management quota it is Rs.99,000.
Last month, the Kerala assembly, in a rare show of unity, wanted strict action against banks which refuse educational loans to students who have got admission to recognised professional courses.