The Punjab government has waived loans worth Rs 41.48 crore of 10,151 Scheduled Caste youths after they found it difficult to repay the money due to various reasons, including circumstances arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic, state minister Sadhu Singh Dharmsot said on Sunday.
"This pro-people move by the state government has given a big relief to the SC youth," a state government statement quoted Mr Dharmsot as saying.
The minister for social justice, empowerment and minorities said the Punjab government has decided to waive up to Rs 50,000 for all kinds of loans taken by SC youths for self-employment from the Scheduled Castes Development and Finance Corporation.
Sadhu Singh Dharmsot said these loans are given by the corporation to SCs and persons with disabilities at low interest rates.
He said the SC youths of the state were finding it difficult to repay the loans taken for self-employment "due to failure of trade, death of beneficiary, no earner at home and circumstances arising out of COVID-19".
The minister said it was decided to waive the loans of the youth to get them out of this problem.
"What Are We Doing To Education System?" Chief Justice On Punjab NRI Quota High Court Quashes Socio-Economic Criteria In Haryana Government Jobs Case Against Punjab Cinema Hall Owner For Screening Ads Violating Poll Code Trump Asks Musk To Join Call With Zelensky In Big Hint At His Possible Role Trump's Immigration Curbs To Impact Millions Of Indians, Their Children With YouTube As Guide, UP Men Printed Rs 500 Notes On Rs 10 Stamp Paper 3rd Assassination Attempt? Iran Man Charged With Plotting To Kill Trump Gujarat Family Honours 'Lucky' Car With Burial Ceremony, 1,500 People Attend ChatGPT Faces Massive Outage, Thousands Of Users Impacted Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.