Delhi govt will offer guarantee on student loans: Yogendra Yadav
Yadav was answering a young student’s question who had asked why car loans were more affordable and easily available than education loans. He said this was the recommendation of a national committee formulated on the issue. “The main onus for repaying the loan would still be on students, but if there is some default the government will pay it. We are devising a single portal system for this,” added Yadav.
It was a day of declarations at the roundtable. NCP leader Praful Patel also made an announcement. He said his party would support the Insurance Bill if the Central Government tabled it. Patel was countering the charge that being in Opposition, his party opposed various legislations being pushed by the Centre. Speaking on his party’s opposition to the Land Acquisition Bill and the charge that a deal was brewing between the NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and PM Narendra Modi, Patel said that when the BJP was in Opposition, it wanted to make the Bill more complex. “But now that they are in power, they have changed their stance and are trying to push the same Bill through the ordinance route. We will never support the Land Acquisition legislation in the present form,” he asserted.
AAP leader Yogendra Yadav raised the issue of urea shortage in various states. “For the first time in Haryana, farmers had to go to the police station to get a packet of urea for Rs 200, and they were lathicharged there. In Haryana, the compensation for land acquisition was reduced vide a notification issued by the state government. You (BJP) had promised you will ensure an MSP of Rs 150 – now the Haryana government has told the Supreme Court they plan no such thing,” he said. Yadav added that urea was a problem in Punjab and Rajasthan as well.
Prasad said the land was required to be acquired for development. Yadav made the charge that once politicians reached the North Block or the South Block, they stopped thinking of farmers or the common man. “They then get SBI to issue a loan to an industrialist like Adani for starting a mine in Australia,” he said, adding that it was Mahatma Gandhi’s dream to ensure that whatever step were taken for development, should keep the last man in mind.
Ravi Shankar Prasad answered that schemes like the Janadhan Yojana, Swachchta Abhiyan and Beti Bachao Yojana were devised keeping Mahatma Gandhi’s dream in mind. Journalist Rajdeep Sardesai added that 70 per cent of accounts opened under the scheme were lying empty.
