Municipal Administration and Minority Affairs Minister Qamarul Islam has said that the Arivu education loan scheme has opened the doors of higher education to a large number of students from the minority communities in the State.
He was speaking after inaugurating an awareness programme on the scheme here on Saturday.
Mr. Qamarul said that the scheme had helped students who could not even dream of joining medical and engineering courses.
As many as 4,857 students belonging to minority communities had benefited from the scheme in the last two years.
Under the scheme, the Karnataka Minorities Development Corporation extends education loan to students from the minority communities with 2 per cent service charge to pursue their higher education and the loan is recoverable after the completion of the course.
A total of Rs. 113 crore had been provided as financial assistance to students to join medical, engineering and other professional courses.
Mr. Qamarul said that the State government had proposed to allocate Rs. 500 crore to the corporation in the next five years to extend the benefit under the scheme to more eligible students.
Sajjada Nasheen of the Khaja Banda Nawaz Dargah Syed Khusroo Hussain was present.
