Step up street vendor loans: Govt to ULBs

BHUBANESWAR: Odisha government on Thursday issued a guideline to promote and facilitate street vendors to avail special micro-credit facility under the PM SVANidhi scheme as the urban local bodies (ULBs) were seen lacking in its implementation.

The Centre had launched the scheme on June 1, 2020 to provide collateral-free working capital loans of up to `10,000 of one year tenure to approximately 50 lakh street vendors to help resume their businesses as they were hard hit because of the lockdowns and shutdowns due to Covid-19 pandemic. In a letter to commissioners of all municipal corporations and executive officers of municipalities and NACs, Principal Secretary of Housing and Urban Development department G Mathi Vathanan said most of the ULBs have not taken adequate steps to mobilise street vendors to avail the facility to resume their livelihood. 

“Letter of recommendation after due field verification is not expedited timely to sanction and disburse the working capital loan to eligible street vendors,” he said. Mathi Vathanan said the issue was also discussed at the State Level Bankers Committee meeting on October 29.