Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur while addressing the virtual rally of Minority Morcha of Organisational district Mandi from Shimla today said that loan up to Rs. 20 lakh was being provided to minority community for a period of five years at a low interest rate of six per cent. He said that study loan of Rs 15 lakh was being provided to students belonging to minority communities for a period of five years at an interest rate of three per cent.The Chief Minister appreciated the efforts of the State Minorities Morcha in expanding the base of the BJP amongst the minority communities. He said that the minority communities were playing a major role in development of the State. He said that the government was also ensuring that policies and programmes aimed at welfare of the minority communities reach the targeted groups.Jai Ram Thakur said that the Covid-19 pandemic has taken the whole world by surprise and almost all the countries were not prepared to face this epidemic. He said that the situation in the country was not as alarming as was in most of the developed countries of the world. He said that credit of this goes to the timely decisions taken by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.He said that three month advance pension was provided to about 5.69 beneficiaries of the social security pension in the State. He said that Rs. 500 each were transferred to the account of 5.90 lakh families for month of April, May and June, 2020 under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna. The Chief Minister said that loans of Rs. 4.56 crore were provided to about 118 persons belonging to minority communities during the year 2018-19 and 119 people were benefitted during the year 2019-20 by providing them loans of Rs. 5 crore. He said that under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Programme, the state government has sent proposal of Rs 12.77 crore out of which Rs 5.74 crore have been released. Member of Parliament Ram Swaroop Sharma said that the two and a half year tenure of the present State Government has ensured balanced and equitable development of the State. He said that several historic and welfare oriented decisions have been taken by the government for betterment of every section of the society.President Minorities Morcha Rajbali said that the minority communities were rock solid behind the state government. He also thanked the Chief Minister for launching several schemes for the welfare and development of the minority communities of the State.