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The National Handicapped Finance and Development Corporation (NHFDC) is holding a brainstorming session on 18th July, 2005 in New Delhi. The Conference will be attended by Secretaries of State Governments and State Channelising Agencies. The purpose of the conference is to identify the bottlenecks in expending the outreach of NHFDC programme to backward and rural areas as also other bottlenecks in making the benefit to reach to a substantial population of disabled persons and find solution for the same.
Since its inception, NHFDC has sanctioned project worth Rs. 106.75 crore and released a total amount of Rs. 95.74 crore to 24272 beneficiaries through the State Channelising Agencies and Non Government Organisation (NGOs) till date. A target of Rs. 30 crore has been fixed for sanction and disbursement of loan for the financial year 2005-06.
The Corporation provides concessional loans to persons with 40 per cent and above disability and whose annual income does not exceed Rs. one lakh in urban areas and Rs. 80,000 in rural areas. The loans are provided for setting up small businesses in service/trading sectors,agricultural activities and small industrial units by people with disabilities. They include persons with mental retardation, cerebral palsy and autism. The Corporation also provides loan to financial assistance for education/training and for skills and entreprenurs development. Loans are advanced at a very low rate of interest ranging between 4-8 per cent for education and 4-6 per cent for other purposes. Women beneficiaries are provided one per cent rebate in interest rates. The repayment period extends from 3-10 years.
MLD:LK:sje-20(15.7)
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