Provide jewel loan waiver for all applicants, OPS urges Stalin

Former Chief Minister and AIADMK coordinator O Panneerselvam on Thursday urged Chief Minister MK Stalin to consider all the applications of the public seeking jewel loan waiver from Cooperative societies.

In a statement, the AIADMK leader said that the DMK during its poll manifesto made a promise to voters stating that all jewel loans up to 40 grams will be waived off, but now the state has imposed restrictions making the scheme available only for a target group.

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According to current norms, more than 35 lakh people are ineligible for the scheme and will benefit only 13.4 lakh people in the State with 2 crore ration cardholders.

Earlier, Stalin announced that the State will spend Rs 6,000 crore for the scheme but now the revised estimates show that the state will earmark Rs 4,500 crore. Initially, during the campaign, the scheme was projected as it would help all those who had mortgaged jewel in cooperative societies, but later it was reduced to 16 lakh estimates and now the beneficiary list is further reduced by another 2.5 lakh applicants, OPS said.

Pinning hopes that the scheme will make headlines the Chief Minister himself made an announcement about the scheme and all the secondary level leaders in the DMK campaign every nook and corner of the state giving hopes to the public that all the Jewel loans in the cooperative banks will be waived. Stalin’s son Udhayanidhi Stalin went a step further and asked the public to mortgage jewel up to 5 sovereigns (40 grams) stating that the loan will be waived off once the DMK forms a government.

“It is the public who are cheated now by the DMK. The Chief Minister as promised in the poll manifesto should ensure that all the applications received under the scheme are processed benefiting them,” OPS added.