LUCKNOW: Joint efforts of bank consortium, Lucknow municipal corporation (LMC) and district urban development agency (DUDA) helped Lucknow surpass Hyderabad and Indore and disburse highest number of loans to street vendors, daily wage earners and people from weaker sections under PM SVANidhi Yojana.
LMC officials shared that 35,861 daily wage earners were given the Rs 10,000 loan till Wednesday, March 31, while Hyderabad provided loan to 35,245 vendors.
Union ministry of housing & urban affairs had launched PM Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) scheme last July to empower street vendors by providing loans to them and helping in their holistic development and economic upliftment.
Collateral-free working capital loans of up to Rs 10,000 for a year were given to approximately 50 lakh street vendors across the country, to help them resume their businesses. “The PM SVANidhi scheme offers incentives in the form of interest subsidy at 7% per annum on regular loan repayment and cashback up to Rs 1,200 per annum for using digital transactions,” said DUDA project manager Nidhi Bajpayee. “Initially, we focused on street vendors registered with LMC, but later the government made relaxations and included all jobless from weaker sections who want to run small businesses. We added rag pickers, scrap dealers, tailors, rickshaw pullers and others. We also organized special Aadhaar camp and arranged a letter of recommendation from LMC for the vendors to open bank accounts and avail loan.”
Vinod Mishra, lead bank district manager Lucknow said, “Among the top 10 urban local bodies in the country, seven are from UP for active participation in disbursing loan to street vendors, with Lucknow at top and including Kanpur, Varanasi, Agra, Allahabad, Meerut and Ghaziabad.”
Additional municipal commissioner, Rakesh Yadav said, “Over 70,000 vendors had applied for the scheme out of which we approved nearly 40,000 and disbursed amount to 35,861 daily wage earners.”