Chennai
Pointing out that about 10 lakh students have availed of Rs 17,000 crore education loan in Tamil Nadu, Alagiri said the SBI has declared Rs 1,875 crore as non-performing asset and sold it to Reliance for Rs 847 crore.
Of the sum, Reliance would only recover and pay Rs 381 crore to SBI, while the remaining would be kept by Reliance as collection fee. Claiming that the Union Finance Ministry has also given its approval to make a pact between SBI and Reliance, Alagiri claimed that students who had availed of education loans from nationalised have been subjected to threat and intimidation owing to the agreement.
Stating that students were already facing hardship in availing of loans from nationalised banks, the TNCC chief referred to a reported instance where a student in Madurai had committed suicide owing to the misery suffered at the hands of Reliance collection agents in 2016 and said the Centre should make efforts to waive the 45 per cent fee paid to Reliance from the loan and collect only the remaining 55 per cent from the students.
Urging the Centre to issue a circular to the banks to this effect, Alagiri asked SBI to immediately terminate the agreement inked with Reliance and stop harassment of students.
The TNCC chief threatened to agitate in front of SBI if it fails to terminate the contract.
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