17-Yr-Old COVID Orphan Gets Notices On Rs 29L Loan: FM Sitharaman Intervenes

New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has asked officials to look into the matter of the heart-wrenching story of a COVID orphan getting loan notices for repayment of a debt left behind by her father.

Vanisha Pathak is dealing with legal notices on a home loan her father took out, the Times of India reported.

The Bhopal topper had written the poem ‘I’ll stand tall without you, Papa’ after scoring 99.8 per cent in her Class X board just months after losing both her parents to COVID.

As luck would have it, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman took notice of the issue. She shared the report on Twitter tagging the Department of Financial Services and LIC India and asked for a brief on the current status of the matter.

@DFS_India @LICIndiaForever
Please look into this. Also brief on the current status.

Orphaned Topper Faces Loan Recovery Notices https://t.co/MNnC7FG6uM via @economictimes

— Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) June 5, 2022

According to the TOI report, Vanisha’s father Jeetendra Pathak who was an LIC agent had taken a loan from the office. Since Vanisha is a minor, LIC has blocked all his savings and the commissions he would get every month. Vanisha told TOI that she has written several times to the authorities to give her time to repay the loan as she is 17 but that there was “silence from the other end”.

The local LIC officials were quoted in the report as saying that her application had been sent to the central office, but Vanisha said she had not received any intimation about the same. She began receiving legal notices in her father’s name, advising her to pay the debts or “be prepared to face legal action.” On February 2, 2022, she received the final legal notice to repay Rs 29 lakh.

“My father was a member of the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) club, a renowned insurance club. Both my father Jeetendra Pathak and mother Seema Pathak passed away due to Covid in May 2021. I and my 11-year-old brother Vivan are minors and Covid orphans. Since we are underage, all my father’s policies and his monthly commissions could not be withdrawn as per the rule. With all of the economic and financial income sources blocked, we have no source of income. Thus, all the repayment of the debts can be done only when I turn 18,” Vanisha said in her letter.

However, LIC had not even responded to her letter, the report said. Her maternal uncle, Prof Ashok Sharma, who is currently taking care of the children, said he did not have enough resources to pay back the loan. “Jeetendra was a bigleague LIC agent and it was expected that the insurance company would reciprocate. We have not received any- thing in writing from LIC that they have considered our request,” he told TOI.

When the publication contacted LIC officials, they said Vanisha’s request had been sent to the higher-ups at the central office. “He was my agent. Vanisha’s uncle sent an application and I have forwarded it to the higher authorities. Though there was nothing in writing, I had informed the family that they will not get any further notices till the time she completes 18 years of age,” LIC’s development officer Sanjay Barnwal was quoted as saying by TOI.