New Delhi, September 9: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday interacted with street vendors from Madhya Pradesh under PM SVANidhi Scheme 2020. During the interaction, he asked people to get benefitted from the PM SVANidhi Scheme 2020 and lauded the hard work of street vendors. He also asked them to maintain hygiene practices, use digital payment system and upgrade their business.

During the interaction, PM Modi said this is the first time the street vendors have been joined through a system. Adding more, the Premier stated that the government is mulling to upgrade the street vendors to online food vendors, where their transactions will be digital and go directly go to their bank accounts. Svanidhi Samvaad Live Streaming: Watch Live Telecast of PM Narendra Modi's Interaction With Street Vendors From Madhya Pradesh at 11 AM on DD News.

PM Modi also asked the street vendors to take care of the health of the customers and themselves amid the COVID-19 pandemic. He appealed them to get benefitted with other government schemes by reaching out to the government centres. The schemes he spoke include -- PM Kisan, Ujjwala Yojana, Ayushman Bharat Yojana, PM Awas Yojana, Jan Dhan Yojana, among others.

The Union government had launched the PM SVANidhi scheme on June 1, 2020, to help poor street vendors who were impacted by Covid-19 resume their livelihood. With this scheme, the government aimed to resume their livelihood. The PM SVANidhi Portal is a one-stop solution through which various services can be accessed by the Street Vendors. People can register to the scheme through web portal -- www.pmsvanidhi.mohua.gov.in or PM SVANidhi Mobile App.

Under the scheme, the government aims at facilitating collateral-free working capital loans up to Rs 10,000 of 1-year tenure, to about 50 lakh street vendors in the urban areas. The loan is given for a tenure of one year, to be paid in three months and they will get their interest subsidised by 7 per cent. The scheme will be available 125 districts across the country and will be available until March 2022. The scheme aims to help people from the surrounding peri-urban/rural areas to resume their businesses post COVID-19 lockdown.

As per details, a total of 4.5 lakh street vendors were registered in Madhya Pradesh, with more than four lakh vendors having been given identification and vendor certification. The applications of 2.45 lakh eligible beneficiaries have been presented through the portal to banks, and acceptance has been granted an amount of Rs 140 crore to around 1.4 lakh street vendors. It is to be known that Madhya Pradesh stands first in the number of total applications accepted, with 47 per cent of these coming from the state alone.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 09, 2020 12:12 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).