The Directorate of Education on Wednesday disbursed an amount of Rs 4.8 crore to ten educational institutions under the Infrastructure-Loan-cum-Grant Scheme.Seven of the institutions have received the first instalment, one received the second,
PANAJI
while two others have received the third instalment.Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar said, “Only 16 institutions could avail of the benefit under the scheme as these managed to complete the necessary formalities. A total of 42 had applied for the scheme.” Till date, an amount of Rs 17.62 crore has been disbursed to 16 educational institutions under the scheme. Goa Education Development Corporation Chairman Shripad Patnekar informed that after every instalment is utilised by the institutions, utilisation certificates need to be submitted to the department. Under the scheme, primary schools more than five years old are eligible for a loan of maximum Rs 50 lakh, secondary schools more than five years old for maximum Rs 100 lakh and higher secondary schools more than five years old maximum Rs 200 lakh. The loan is given in three instalments – 30 per cent, 50 per cent and 20 per cent.The loan can be utilised for improvement of infrastructure like construction/renovation of school building, toilets/bathroom, hostel facilities, construction of playground and to purchase equipment for security of the school including CCTVs. It also includes the cost of land for the purpose of construction of the school, building and playground only but not exceeding 50 per cent of the total loan amount with prior permission of the department. The expenditure on salary, consumables like chalks, dusters, laboratory material like glass, plastic, chemicals is, however, not covered.
