Chandigarh, May 20 – Despite the resumption of almost all economic activities in Haryana during Lockdown 4.0, Haryana Chief Minister, Mr. Manohar Lal while pledging to continue to assist the farmers, labourers, poor people, businessmen and entrepreneurs, today announced several new initiatives like paying three months’ interest on student loans by the State Government.

The Chief Minister was addressing the people of the state today during the 'Haryana Aaj' programme.

Mr. Manohar Lal said that there are many such students who have taken loan for their education. Haryana Government will pay the interest of three months of all those students who are completing their education this year or who have already completed their education in the previous year, but have not been able to start their jobs or business due to this epidemic. As many as 36,000 students will be benefitted with an amount of about Rs 40 crore.

Similarly, Haryana Government will bear two percent of the total interest on loans of up to Rs 50,000 under 'Shishu Yojana' of Mudra Loan Scheme of the Central Government. They will not be required to give any type of collateral for this loan. Under this scheme, loan will be provided to 5 lakh persons of the state.

The Chief Minister said that the Haryana Government will provide loans of up to Rs 15,000 to 3 lakh poor people for starting their own small business at only two percent interest. These loans will be provided under the Differential Rate of Interest (DRI) scheme, in which banks charge four percent interest. Of this, two percent interest will be borne by the State Government.

He said that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, economic activity has been limited for the last three months. As a result, not only the family income has been affected but the government's revenue has also come down drastically. He said that, the government was determined that in this crisis, not even a single person should sleep hungry. Daily need of families will not suffer due to lack of family income. With this resolve in mind, financial assistance of Rs 636 crore has been provided to 15,09,108 families in the last three months in Haryana. This amount has been directly transferred to the bank account of the beneficiaries.

The Chief Minister said that keeping in mind the spirit of Antyodaya that no one should sleep hungry, free ration is also being made available to more than 27 lakh families by the State Government. Apart from this, 3,70,925 families, who do not have any ration card, are also being provided free ration through Distress Ration Tokens. In addition, so far 2.62 crore food packets and more than 12,22,000 dry ration packets have also been distributed.

Mr. Manohar Lal said that lakhs of migrant labourers who are working in Haryana, want to return to their native states due to lockdown. Free of cost arrangement of buses and trains have been made for them. So far, we have transported more than 2 lakh labourers to their destination from Haryana through a total of 53 trains and 4257 buses. During the last three months, more than 600 shelter homes have also been run for the labourers, so that they do not face any problem.

He said that many types of relaxations have been given during lockdown since May 18 and majority of economic activities have been allowed. However, many businesses need government assistance to resume their work. The Chief Minister said that banks will play a prominent role for restarting businesses. But applicants often face various problems in availing loans from different banks. Since the last three months, e-governance has been widely used by the government to help the common man. Keeping this in mind, a portal is being developed on which one can apply for any kind of loan from any bank to start a new venture. The state government will ensure that all such loan applications are approved by banks without any delay.

Mr. Manohar Lal said that the Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi had recently announced an economic package of Rs 20 lakh crores under the ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat’. Taking it forward the Haryana Government is doing everything possible to provide full benefits to its farmers, labourers, poor people, businessmen and entrepreneurs and will also start various new schemes for the benefit of people for this purpose.