Scheduled Castes Cooperative Finance Corporation transforming lives

Tirupati: Idavala Ramachandraiah, a graduate driver in Tirupati used to earn Rs 300 per day working in private travels till he approached the AP Scheduled Castes Cooperative Finance Corporation for a loan to buy Toyota Innova. He applied for a vehicle loan through online, the SC Finance Corporation had sanctioned a loan of Rs 16.5 lakh with Rs 5.77 lakh as subsidy. Remaining amount has to be repaid in monthly instalments for five years.

This brought a remarkable change in his life which took him to earn about Rs 2,000 per day. The case of another graduate Penumuru Venkataramana also was a similar one. He took up driving in a private bus to earn his livelihood in Chittoor. When he has noticed a Toyota Innova vehicle with a sticker ‘Thank You CM’ on it, he enquired with the driver about the scheme.

Finally, he too secured the loan without any hassles and earning Rs 2,000 per day. Both of them were now leading a happy life which they did not even dreamt till some time back. There are another 33 such Innova owners, 50 persons having Etios cars, 48 tractors, 386 auto-rickshaws, about 150 land owners, and 191 persons having agricultural borewells among other things in the district from SC community, who were benefitted from the SC Finance Corporation that changed their life style.

The state has introduced a novel scheme of providing up to Rs 20 lakh for SC beneficiaries to buy Innova vehicle to earn their livelihood, as the Chief Minister has felt that with small loans, one cannot grow and instead they use it for petty expenses. 

In this direction, the SC Finance Corporation has been doing remarkable job in the district. The district has got Rs 170 crore during 2016-17 to implement various schemes for the benefit of SCs which has more than doubled in the subsequent year to reach Rs 380 crore. For 2018-19, the district officials have sent proposals for Rs 450 crore.

Among various schemes, Chittoor was the only district in the State to implement land purchase scheme for SCs. Under this scheme, depending on the availability of land not less than one acre of land will be purchased by the government for the beneficiary with Rs 15 lakh per acre in which 75 per cent amount will be provided under subsidy. The remaining 25 per cent will be provided as loan by banks with 25 paise interest and the recovery will start only after one year. 

It was said that, District Collector PS Pradyumna and SC Corporation Chairman Jupudi Prabhakar Rao took special initiative in the execution of various schemes by reviewing them regularly while the ED of the Corporation and Tirupati RDO Kanaka Narasa Reddy was instrumental in identification of beneficiaries under each scheme. All these efforts have put the district at second place in the implementation of various schemes.

By  V Pradeep Kumar