Union Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri reviewed the progress of PM SVANidhi scheme today in a meeting held with the Housing and Urban Development Ministers of state governments and other senior officials. The Minister urged the participants to sensitize every official towards the issues faced by street vendors.
He asked for compassion-based handling of issues related to the street vendors, who he said, are already facing testing times due to the pandemic. Mr. Puri informed that the government is also in the process of preparing a plan to capture socio-economic profile of all PM SVANidhi beneficiaries. He said the move will facilitate street vendors’ access to other government welfare schemes as well based on their entitlements.
Over 5 lakh 70 thousand loan applications have been received under the PM SVANidhi scheme so far, out of which over 1 lakh 35 thousand loans have been sanctioned. Mr. Puri emphasised that the scheme should be seen as part of an outreach for comprehensive development and socio-economic upliftment of the vendors in the country.
Government had launched PM SVANidhi scheme on 1st of June this year through which the vendors can avail a collateral free working capital loan of up to 10 thousand rupees.
