BHOPAL/NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday praised the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government for doing excellent work for the welfare of street vendors under the PM SVANidhi Yojana and appealed to other states to draw inspiration from Madhya Pradesh.
During a digital interaction with MP street vendors who are the SVANidhi scheme beneficiaries, Modi also announced that the government is working on another welfare scheme for street vendors and those attached with it would get benefits of all the other government schemes such as Ujjwala and Ayushman Bharat.
“The work of giving identity cards and other benefits to more than one lakh street vendors of MP is commendable. This relief provided to the poor has proved to be a boon at the time of the pandemic. With the help of digital revolution, the achievement of MP in the PM SVANidhi Yojana is commendable,” the PM said.
Before his address, Modi held ‘SVANidhi Samvad’ with the beneficiaries of the scheme and appreciated their self-confidence, perseverance and hard work.
The CM and Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri, among others, were present during the virtual interaction. PMSVANidhi is a micro-credit facility scheme to facilitate street vendors to access affordable working capital loan.
With a target of covering 50 lakh vendors, over 10 lakh applications have been received and nearly 3.39 lakh have been sanctioned. Modi said the scheme’s aim is to provide self-employment, self-sustenance and self-confidence to the vendors.
Urging them to adapt to transacting digitally, he said the government is going to bring an online platform to make that possible.