Hyderabad: In its efforts to provide financial assistance to street vendors who lost their livelihood due to the COVID-19 crisis, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) identified as many as 77,939 street vendors and issued identity cards to 58,435 of them.
This will facilitate the street vendors to seek loans under the Pradhan Mantri Street Vendors Atma Nirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) scheme, launched by the central government. As a part of this scheme, each street vendor will be sanctioned a loan up to Rs. 10,000 at an interest rate of seven per cent, which can be repaid in 12 equated monthly installments (EMI). The interest paid will be reimbursed under this scheme.
In the Southern part of the city there are approximately 500 hawkers would be getting the loan and around 150 hawkers around Charminar—Monument. The GHMC have by now provided loans to about 25 hawkers. The Hawkers in and around Charminar, Unani Hospital, PathergattiRd, Gulzar House, Shahran Market and others.
Loans have already been issued to 9,425 vendors, the statement issued by GHMC read.Municipal Administration and Urban Development Principal Secretary Arvind Kumar is a member of the National Steering Committee under the PM SVANidhi, which was launched on June 1 as a special micro-credit facility scheme for providing affordable loans to street vendors to resume their livelihoods that have been adversely affected by the pandemic.
To promote digital transactions, an additional Rs.100 per month will be provided on all transactions done digitally. This will in turn reduce the EMI amount paid by the vendors.