Andhra to pay off loans of women self-help groups

Naveen S Garewal 
Tribune News Service 
Hyderabad, September 11 

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The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy launched the ‘YSR Asara’ scheme on Friday to benefit 87 lakh women belonging to 8.71 lakh self-help groups (SHGs).

In a statement issued on Friday, the chief minister said: “I promised that I will reimburse all outstanding loans of SHGs as on April 11, 2019, in four instalments and today, I am releasing the first”.

No other government had introduced such a scheme benefiting so many women, he said, adding that the government of Andhra Pradesh would reimburse all the outstanding loans taken by all the women members of the SHGs belonging to the SC, ST, BC, and minority communities on April 11, 2019.

The scheme promises to deposit money in the bank accounts of eligible women, amounting to Rs 27,168 crore in total in four instalments.

The first instalment of Rs 6,792 crore was released on Friday in a virtual event. According to the state government’s calculations, the outstanding loans of eligible women on the cut-off date were determined to be amounting to Rs 25,383 crore.

Most of these women hailing from poor families were compelled to take these loans for education, healthcare, and care of elderly people at home, daily needs and other emergencies.