The Kerala State Financial Enterprises (KSFE) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Kudumbashree on Wednesday to launch a micro chitty scheme to distribute laptops to indigent students.
The 45-lakh Kudumbashree neighbourhood group members would be the main beneficiaries of the scheme.
The KSFE would launch a chitty scheme for ₹15,000 in which members would have to remit ₹500 a month. But the total remittance had been pegged at ₹14,250 and on paying the first three instalments, laptops specified by the Education Department for school students would be procured from the agencies empanelled by the IT Department and distributed to the beneficiaries.
The KSFE would remit the last three instalments for those making the payment without default. Elected representatives, local bodies, and voluntary organisations could also chip in by donating funds.
If any member joining the chitty did not need a laptop, she could demand the money after remitting the 13th instalment and would get ₹15,408. A member claiming the money after clearing the 25th instalment would get ₹16,777 and the final settlement, after 30 instalments, would be ₹16,922.
No security would be needed for getting the laptop. The members and neighbourhood groups should ensure the repayment of instalments. As many as 3,500 chitty schemes would be conducted by including 1,05,000 members in the first phase.
The scheme would be implemented through local KSFE branches. It would support local bodies for installing television sets in public places where students could gather for lessons. Matysafed came forward to avail itself of the scheme for installing television sets in libraries and reading rooms in the coastal belt.
The KSFE would also join hands with the Backward Classes Development Corporation and the SC/ST Welfare Department to provide laptops to students belonging to those categories.
Kudumbasree executive director S. Harikishore and KSFE managing director V.P. Subramanian signed the MoU in the presence of Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac, Local Administration Minister A.C. Moideen and Education Minister C. Raveendranath.
