Kancheepuram:
While the Union Cabinet Ministers are busy achieving their hundred-day target, a former banker and first-time MP in Tamil Nadu's Kanchipuram constituency organised a mega educational loan mela to fulfill his electoral promise. The idea is to enable rural youth to pursue higher education. This drew over 5000 rural students.
Brinda, the daughter of a farmer, was finding it difficult to hold back her tears of joy. Her loan application had been approved and she can now study engineering. Brinda was among the 5000 youngsters from rural Tamil Nadu who turned up at this Mega Educational loan mela at Kanchipuram. Though she had passed Class 12 last year, she wasted one year working as a labourer because her father could not afford her college fees.
"I had thought that I will never be able to study and I may have to just work and get married. But now I have the confidence that I can do well and make it big in life," said R Brinda, beneficiary.
The banks will process applications in a fortnight. The loan mela was the brainchild of Vishwanathan, first-time MP from Kanchipuram.
"No sir, it's not purely politics. I know the pulse of these rural people. I have been a student like this. And I want to bring them some change," said Viswanathan, Kanchipuram MP.
And the man who knows all about loans was at hand to laud the initiative.
"Once expansion, excellence and equity achieved, higher education will be available to every citizen of our country," said P Chidambaram, Home Minister.
Setting aside the political agenda, this is certainly an example of how much could an MP contribute to the constituency that elected him or her.