bhubaneswar poor students aspiring to pursue professional and technical education can now avail study loan up to rs 10 lakh at one per cent interest rate the state government announced here on mondaythe state government will create a corpus of rs 500 crore from its own resources for the subsidised loan scheme christened kalinga sikshya sathi yojana kssy the subsidized higher education loan was part of bjds election manifesto before the simultaneous lok sabha and state assembly elections it is being seen as another dole of the bjd government ahead of panchayat elections next yearannouncing launching of the new scheme chief minister naveen patnaik said students taking admission in medical engineering management law and other professional courses will particularly benefit from the scheme i realise the financial difficulties faced by poor and middle class parents for their wards higher education this historic move will ease loan burden on lakhs of such parents and help their children realise the dreams of pursing higher education naveen saida cm office statement said the kssy will be a befitting tribute to former chief minister biju patnaik from whom the ruling bjd draws it name on his birth centenary yeara senior government officer said the government is likely to put parents annual income limit of rs 45 lakh for the scheme the existing limit in the ongoing odisha state interest subvention scheme osiss launched last yearbanks provide study loan at around 115 to students the union governments central scheme to provide interest subsidy csis share the interest burden of the students 4 for boys and 6 for girls till one year of completion of courses or six months after the loantaker gets jobs the osiss launched last year share the interest burden at similar rates 4 for boys and 6 for girls after the centres moratorium period of one year and for the entire repayment period except for defaulters under the kssy the state government will bear the differential rates 55 to 75 in the csisperiod and the entire cost 105 in the repayment period the government will pay the subsidy on annual basis through direct benefit transfer to the students accounts after they apply in the prescribed formatopposition political parties are sceptical about the government move if the announcement is implemented in letter and spirit it is a good move and should have been introduced much earlier however this government has a track record of befooling people by tokenism and not giving the benefits to all the deserving people by introducing too many terms and conditions the states promise of farm loan at 1 did not work said leader of opposition narasingha mishra