Nearly 300 women from self-help groups (SHGs) have taken loans up to Rs 10 lakh from nationalised banks in the district since October 10, when President Pratibha Patil launched in the city a scheme bringing down the interest rate to four per cent.

Twenty-five SHGs have got the loan sanctioned while 15 are in the final stages of approval. Loan seekers have submitted proposals for poultry, organic, goat and dairy farming.

“The scheme will enable women to take on more entrepreneurial activities and repay faster,” said senior district coordinator T L Shere of Mahila Arthik Vikas Mahamandal (MAVIM), one of the key agencies coordinating the scheme in the district.

Bank of Maharashtra, Bank of India, Central Bank, State Bank of India have provided loans ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh, he said.

All this has happened while awareness is still very low. Pune District Collector Chandrakant Dalvi has said he would organiae a meeting with bank representatives, followed by meetings in every taluka.

With banks so far having offered loans at 9-11 per cent, Shere said, the scheme will benefit nearly 17 lakh women from rural areas from a total of 1.42 SHGs.

“Around 45,000 SHGs will stand to get Rs 50,000, another 72,000 will get Rs 1 lakh and 18,000 SHGs will get Rs 2 lakh, with the state taking on an interest subsidy of nearly Rs 129.01 crore in three years,” he said.

A senior officer with a nationalised bank said they are confident of repayment going by the past records of SHGs. “We will be only too willing to help these women,” he said. Manisha Kale of Pune’s Garib Nawaz Bachat Gat, who was given the first disbursal of Rs 2 lakh from the president, has speeded up planning for dairy farming. “It should start soon. We have mobilised our group,” she said.