PM SVANidhi: GHMC leads in helping street vendors

Hyderabad: With a total of 31,250 loans sanctioned under the PM SVANidhi, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) figures at the top amongst the corporations which are implementing the scheme throughout the country.

According to official sources, by January 20 the number of applications sent to the banks by the corporation was 58,996. This remained high when compared to other top 4 Cities including Lucknow (46,726), Varanasi (40,270), Indore (36,619) and Warangal (35796). While the number of applications sanctioned remained below 30,000 for all cities.

In recent days, the GHMC has also sped up the process in disbursing loans to the street vendors under the PM SAVNidhi loan scheme though Hyderabad took this initiative in the recent days, when compared with other cities. With fast disposal, the officials are hopeful of covering most of the street vendors and small businessmen with Rs 10,000 loan.

It may be mentioned here that in the city, the GHMC has also launched the campaign under the initiative 'Main Bhi Digital' on January 4, which concluded on January 22. This helped the street vendors, as GHMC sanctioned and disbursed the loan amount easily. Also, on the digital platform the street vendors used the technology in their daily transactions, making the payment simpler through training them regarding digital transactions. "Under GHMC, 1,45,090 street vendors were surveyed and 1,34,384 were issued smart ID cards, and the corporation also formed the town vending committee with 30 members for this campaign," informed an official.

With 31,250 applications sanctioned for the loan, a total of 52.97% of the targeted street vendors were covered till now and for 22,568 applicants amount was disbursed.

"To support street vendors and help them grow their business in e-commerce platforms, several schemes have been launched. One such scheme is PM SVANidhi, which creates a supportive environment to the street vendors and also helps build the credit profile of the street vendors to facilitate formal credit for their future needs," the official informed.

At the beginning of the month the Municipal commissioners of all the ULB's coordinated with the bank officials and organized bank-wise camps and ensured the sanction of loans and onboarding of digital transactions. The officials worked as per the schedule and helped the recognized street vendors in giving the training and the officials coordinated with them, he added.