September 17, 2003	Wednesday	Rajab 19, 1424

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RAWALPINDI, Sept 16: District Nazim Raja Tariq Kiyani on Tuesday called for plugging loopholes in the grant of loans by the Punjab Education Foundation (PEF).

He was presiding over a meeting of the District Education Promotion Committee (DEPC) here.

The district Nazim said the requirements for grant of loan should be strictly fulfilled so as to minimise the chances of default.

The default of institutions benefiting from this scheme has been common in the past due to lethargy of the officials concerned. Under the scheme, the NGOs taking loans to set up and run schools are to furnish bank guarantee or mortgage some asset with the Foundation. Several loans defaulted in the past because this clause was blatantly violated.

Loans are mostly given to the NGOs to set up and run new schools in the district. However, it has been noticed that most of the NGOs either do not set up schools, while others close them down after some time.

There is still another group of NGOs, which set up schools on commercial basis and charge exorbitant fees in violation of the terms and conditions of the project requiring of them to charge the students nominally.

It has been further learnt that the government departments have a poorly maintained record of these loans, hence default by the debtors.

The DEPC, that supervises these projects, has not been meeting regularly in violation of the requirement of meeting once a month. Taking stock of this situation, Mr Kiyani directed that the monthly meeting should be held compulsorily so that the loans situation could be reviewed.

The district Nazim also called for reviewing the conditions for grant of loans to streamline the situation. He said factors like the past results of the institution; facilities provided to the students; qualifications of teachers and record of the land on which the school had been built or was proposed to be built should be taken into consideration while evaluating any application.

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