Students and parents at the loan camp organised by Canara Bank in Ranchi on Sunday. Picture by Manik Bose

Ranchi, June 8: With each passing year, students’ aspiration grows bigger and so does the fee of their dream institute.

In an attempt to support students, Canara Bank organised an education loans camp today. A similar programme was organised in Bokaro, Jamshedpur and Dhanbad.

This year Canara Bank is giving education loan for higher studies at 9.75 per cent for boys and 8.75 per cent for girls, for 56 colleges across the country. BIT Mesra, ISM Dhanbad and XLRI, Jamshedpur, have also been included in the list.

Students of other colleges are being given loans at 12 per cent with girls getting a 1per cent concession.

R.R. Sharma, the deputy general manager, circle office, said: “We have set a target of around 500 students and an estimate of Rs 20 crore for education loans this year. In one hour we got around 30 interested students in the city itself. At the Jamshedpur branch students came in large numbers as well.”

Students seemed delighted about the low rates of interest. Many like Sneha Pandey will now be able to finance their studies. “I passed out of college in 2005. But my parents were not willing to send me out of Ranchi due to the heavy expenditure involved. Now that a loan has also been so easily arranged, they have agreed to send me out,” said Sneha, who qualified through MAT in a college in Bangalore.

Nikhil, who has got admission in an IIT, (Rank 5887) was also very happy with the reduced interest rates.

Neeta Banerjee has qualified for BIT, Mesra. She said: “I come from a middle-income group and have two siblings who are still in school. So financial constraints have always been there. With the reduced rates of interest, I can pay back the loan amount after my course is over.”

Ashok Pandey, another aspirant, has made it to Kalinga Institute of Technology, a deemed university.

“I had taken the exams last year as well. But getting a loan took so long that I could not make it. But this year all the formalities are over and I will be able to make it in time,” said Pandey.

Canara Bank has also launched education vans that would tour cities and apprise students of lending rates and other formalities.