Month-long drive for hawkers from today

Street vendors will also receive training on food safety and hygiene in collaboration with FSSAI, along with digital literacy and business management sessions.
‘No-hawkers’ zone being marked around Charminar in Hyderabad.
‘No-hawkers’ zone being marked around Charminar in Hyderabad.Photo | Express
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HYDERABAD: The Telangana Mission for Elimination of Poverty in Municipal Areas (TMEPMA) will conduct a month-long special campaign under the Pradhan Mantri Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) scheme across all Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) from June 1 to 30.

Officials said the drive will be conducted through district-level SVANidhi Mahotsavs, ULB-level Lok Kalyan Melas and focused outreach programmes in Census Towns.

The government has set ambitious targets, including mobilising 32,613 new vendors for first-tranche loans, facilitating 32,694 credit card applications, completing socio-economic profiling of 40,122 vendors and sanctioning 97,149 social security benefits for vendors and their family members.

Within the Core Urban Region, targets include 5,075 first-tranche loan applications in GHMC, 3,806 each in CMC and MMC, and 329 in SCB. Similar targets have been fixed for credit cards, profiling and welfare coverage.

Officials said PM SVANidhi has emerged as a key urban livelihood programme by enabling vendors to access affordable credit, digital payments and welfare benefits. As part of the campaign, authorities will organise loan sanction camps, credit card enrolment drives, QR code distribution, digital payment awareness sessions and follow-up support for beneficiaries.

Street vendors will also receive training on food safety and hygiene in collaboration with FSSAI, along with digital literacy and business management sessions.

Lok Kalyan Melas will focus on identifying left-out beneficiaries and linking vendors and their families with welfare schemes under the SVANidhi Se Samriddhi initiative. Dedicated camps will also be organised in Census Towns to ensure no eligible vendor is left out.

Officials said the campaign, to be implemented with support from banks, FSSAI, Town Vending Committees, Digital Payment Aggregators and local bodies, is expected to significantly expand financial inclusion, social security coverage and economic empowerment among street vendors across Telangana.

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