Hyderabad: Getting vendor loans a far cry

Hyderabad: The street vendors propose, banks dispose. A whopping 9,000 street vendors from Charminar zone applied for the Pradhan Mantri Street Vendors AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) scheme but only 1,610 received it till date. As part of the scheme, Rs 10,000 is given to street vendors to restart business. Mohammed Younus, a street vendor said, "There is too much running around and paperwork."

Sohail, a vendor at Lad Bazar, said that he received the street vendor card last month and applied for a loan online, but it's been pending for approval from the bank. "I have been making rounds to the bank for the last 15 days leaving my work. It is taking a toll on me."

He said the government should set up centers and make it easy for us to apply for the loan with less documentation. There are close to 5,000 hawkers around the historic Charminar. Many sell fake jewellery, caps, handkerchiefs and household items.

In Charminar circle-9, GHMC had identified 3,688 vendors and in Santosh Nagar circle 2,881. While, in Chandrayanagutta 2,367 were identified and Falaknuma 2,800 and in Malakpet 2,467 vendors were identified till now and only 1,610 have received PM SVANidhi loan.

He further said the project officers are identifying the vendors providing them 'street vendor cards' and conducting awareness for applying loans. Several vendors and hawkers came forward to apply for the loan but they are yet to receive the loan amount from the bank."

An officer said they have identified several migrants who came from UP, Bihar, Assam etc living in the city with their family and are doing small business on streets in markets. "For these migrants we are helping them to apply for loans by providing them vendor cards, opening bank accounts etc. such applications are also being pending from banks," he noted.