In a major development, the Maharashtra government led by Uddhav Thackeray has allowed the state cooperative bank to give personal loans to prisoners in the state and the notification has also been released in this regard. According to the government, approximately 1055 prisoners can benefit from the scheme.
Commenting on this, State Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil said that the scheme will start from Yerwada Jail in Pune. Under the scheme, the prisoners in jail will be able to get personal loans up to Rs 50,000 from the MSC bank.
Talking to Indian Cooperative in detail on the phone, the Chairman of the Administrative Board of MSC Bank Vidyadhar Anaskar said, “We had submitted a proposal before the state government for providing loan to jail inmates in December and we are happy that the government has given the green light to our proposal”.
“The objective behind the scheme is to help jail inmates’ families who are facing financial difficulties. We will give the loan at a 7 percent rate of interest and the 1 percent of this will be given towards the Prisoners Relief fund”, he added.
Anaskar further added, “As you may be aware that convicted prisoners get paid for doing work inside the jail, and wages are fixed on the basis of their classification. In this process, the Jail administration will have to play a big role in many senses like helping the bank in opening an account of prisoners with the bank who want to avail of the loans under the scheme and deduct money from their wages for the repayment of loan”, he asserted.
“Our bank has now become the first bank in the world which is working in this context. There are many banks and organizations which are working for the rehabilitation of prisoners when prisoners come out of Jail, no one is working to give loans to prisoners for helping their families during their period of jail. Only those prisoners can avail of the loan who have committed the first offense”, Anaskar clarified.
He informed me that there will be no processing fees as well as no collateral. The loans will be given on the basis of prison sentences. The meeting has been called on 3rd April at Yerwada Jail in Pune for starting the further process.
Meanwhile, social netizens also reacted to this and trolled the Maharashtra government. One of the users wrote, ” Most ridiculous scheme I’ve ever heard of!”.