Over 1.54 lakh street vendors have applied for loan under PM SVANidhi scheme so far: Govt

Representative image

More than 1.54 lakh street vendors have so far applied under PM SVANidhi, a special micro-credit scheme for providing affordable loan of up to Rs 10,000 to such people, the Centre said on Friday.

In a statement, the Union Housing and Urban Affairs (HUA) ministry said out of 1.54 lakh, loan applications of over 48,000 street vendors have already been sanctioned.

Pradhan Mantri Street Vendor's AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) was launched by the ministry on June 1 to provide affordable working capital loan to street vendors to resume their livelihoods that have been adversely affected due to COVID-19 lockdown.

This scheme targets to benefit over 50 lakh street vendors who had been vending on or before March 24 this year in urban areas, including those from surrounding peri-urban and rural areas.

Under the Scheme, vendors can avail a loan of up to Rs 10,000, which is repayable in monthly installments in the tenure of one year.

"Since the commencement of lending process under PM SVANidhi on July 2, more than 1,54,000 street vendors have applied for working capital loan across states/Union Territories out of which applications of over 48,000 street vendors have already been sanctioned," the ministry said in the statement.

Meanwhile, HUA Secretary Durga Shanker Mishra on Friday launched a mobile application of the scheme, which aims to provide user friendly digital interface for lending institutions and their field functionaries for sourcing and processing loan applications of street vendors.

It is believed that the launch of the mobile application will give impetus to the implementation strategy of the scheme besides promoting paper-less digital accessing of micro-credit facilities by the street vendors, the statement said.

The ministry had also launched a web portal for the scheme on June 29.

Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here.