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Students from the economically weaker sections pursuing general degree courses in the State can now avail interest-free educational loans.

The State government has decided to implement the Rajiv Gandhi Loan Scholarship Scheme for students in general degree and postgraduate degree courses from the academic year 2013-14.

This will be valid for colleges run by the State government, universities and aided colleges (for aided courses only).

This does not include professional courses. Students whose annual family income does not exceed Rs 2.5 lakh will be eligible for the loan.

The student should have secured 50 per cent or more marks in PUC or any equivalent course.

Announcing this here on Monday, Higher Education Minister R V Deshpande said the government would offer full interest subsidy for the period of study of the course. Beyond that period, students will be responsible for payment of monthly instalments towards both principal and interest repayment.

The loan will be given towards tuition fee and other fees, food and accommodation, books, computers among others.

The loan cap is Rs 1.8 lakh for degree courses (three years), Rs 3 lakh for integrated courses (five years) and Rs 20,000 for short-term courses (less than six months).

A press release issued by the Higher Education Department indicates the current rate of interest charged by banks for student loans at 12 per cent for up to Rs 4 lakh. The same will be available for girl students is at 11 per cent.

How to avail loan?

Students can avail the interest subsidy only once.

They can opt for it either for the first undergraduate course or the postgraduate course. If they discontinue in between, or are suspended, the interest subsidy will be discontinued.

The scheme will be implemented through Vijaya Bank, the nodal bank for the State-level Bankers’ Committee. Those interested in availing the loan will have to submit their Aadhaar numbers. The loan would be tagged to their Aadhaar number and their PAN numbers.

To help the employers identify the beneficiaries, there will be electronic tags. Where neither Aadhaar nor PAN numbers are available, banks will evolve their own mechanism for monitoring loan repayment, according to the minister.

Deshpande said this was an initiative towards increasing enrolment in higher education. The State’s Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education for 2010-11 is 25.5 per cent.

The government aims to increase this to 35 per cent by 2020.

CID to probe CET fraud

The State government has handed over a probe into alleged irregularities in seat allotment for Common Entrance Test (CET)-2013 to the Criminal Investigation Department.

The government, however, has not yet decided on whether to order an inquiry only into the irregularities in CET-2013 or the entire period the CET existed, Higher Education Minister R V Deshpande told mediapersons on Monday.

The government has suspended Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) Administrative Officer S P Kulkarni for the alleged irregularities in CET-2013.

The minister said the suspension was based on an inquiry by the KEA. It was found that Kulkarni, during CET-2013, helped 70 students secure seats under various quotas, despite they not being eligible. Majority of them were engineering seats and most of the students were accommodated in the rural quota.

Show-cause notices have been sent to college principals, students and tahsildars who were involved in preparing fake documents. The Higher Education Department has also constituted a legal committee to look into the replies. The seat allotments will be withdrawn.

Kulkarni was earlier removed from the post as his performance was “not satisfactory”. In April 2012, erstwhile higher education secretary Siddaiah had issued orders for his replacement. The order stated: “The official (Kulkarni) has been working in the KEA for more than four years. The KEA director has expressed dissatisfaction about him. His actions have been found in favour of private managements and against the interest of the KEA.”

Kulkarni, however, got his post back once the director concerned was transferred.

Former KEA director Chakravarthy Mohan, who was in charge during CET-2013, refused to comment. He told Deccan Herald he did not want to comment on a previous posting. “I have held several posts before. I cannot comment on my previous posts. I am responsible for my post only at that point of time. I cannot comment.”

In order to become the KEA administrative officer, one has to be a senior-scale KAS officer.

Sources in the KEA said the process of appointing a new official would not take more than three days.