The Himachal Pradesh government has implemented a new scheme this financial year to provide educational loans to eligible students of the state at an interest rate of one per cent, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said on Monday.

The government is committed to providing quality education and the 'Dr Y S Parmar Vidyarthi Rin Yojna' will ensure that no youngster of the state is deprived of higher or professional education due to financial constraints, he said in a statement.

In his Budget speech in March, Sukhu announced that education loans would be provided at the rate of one per cent to students of the state.

Students from families having an annual income of less than Rs 4 lakh are eligible to avail loans under this scheme, he said. The age limit to avail of the loan has been fixed at 28 years as of registration and admission date.

Sukhu said a corpus will be maintained at the level of the deputy commissioner in the districts for cases in which the money is required to be deposited immediately and banks are taking time to release the first instalment.

Students before getting admission to the institutions of their choice would register themselves on the portal of the higher education department and upload the documents required under the scheme, the statement said.

Under the scheme, eligible students will be able to avail education loans of up to Rs 20 lakh from any scheduled bank located in Himachal to meet the expenses of boarding, lodging, tuition fees, books and other allied expenses associated with their education.

Students having 60 per cent marks in the previous class will be eligible to avail the loan at the interest rate of one per cent to pursue diploma or degree courses in professional and technical education such as engineering, medical, management, paramedical, pharmacy, nursing and law, as well as technical Courses from ITIs and PhDs from recognised educational institutions and universities.

The chief minister said a mechanism would be developed to evaluate the outcomes of the scheme in regular intervals to ascertain its effectiveness and track the progress of the students.

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