Spotlight: Dead Andhra students leave a debt

Nearly 80 per cent of students going to the US opt for bank loans ranging from Rs2 lakh to Rs3 lakh per annum. Except for A Srinivas, the latest victim, who was relatively well-off, all the students from Andhra Pradesh who were killed in the US over the last 12 months had taken loans from banks. CR Komma and KK Allam had taken loans with their parents standing surety.

Now, the banks want their money back. Vishwanath Reddy, Komma’s elder brother, has received letters asking for repayment of the loan. On compassionate grounds, banks have allowed him to pay back by way of equated monthly instalments. They have offered to reduce the interest rate by half and waived the penalty clauses.

Banks, though understanding in their approach to such cases, are wary of families of victims taking undue advantage. They, therefore, have been insisting on the payment of the principal amount and have agreed to waive the interest component in a phased manner.

Colleges, on the other hand, have offered to refund only part of the fees and waive hostel charges for a fixed period of one month, say families of the deceased. College managements are strict on vacation of the rooms. Allam’s wife Kalpana, also a post-graduate student, who lived in an apartment on the campus with him, had to give it up in January. She is still in the US and wants to complete her course and return by the end of October.

A major problem faced by families in such cases is that of getting the bodies back to India. “Unless some agencies help them by bearing the costs, families end up spending more than they can afford,” says DCP (Cyberabad) A Lincoln, who handled one of the cases. Officials of the state home ministry play a crucial role in the shipment of the corpses and their release from successive airports. They also help the families to reduce their expenditure.

Courtesy: dnaindia