Srinagar, Dec 17 (KNO): Nearly 17,000 street vendors in Jammu and Kashmir have benefited from the Prime Minister Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) scheme and over ₹48 crore loan disbursed so far, as per the official data tabled in Parliament shows.
In a written reply by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in response to a Lok Sabha question, as said to a news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), a total of 17,315 street vendors in Jammu and Kashmir are registered as beneficiaries under this scheme.
The data further reveals that loans amounting to ₹50.83 crore have been approved in favour of these vendors. So far, ₹48.18 crore has already been disbursed, which depicts a high disbursal rate in the Union Territory.
The Ministry said, "Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) play a key role in identifying eligible street vendors through surveys conducted under the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014, or through verification of applications submitted on the PM SVANidhi portal."
After the verification is completed, eligible vendors are provided with Certificates of Vending, identity cards or Letters of Recommendation (LoR). Then their loan applications are sent to banks and other lending institutions for approval and disbursement. Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) also facilitate vendors through handholding, mobilising applicants and coordinating with banks to ensure loans are released promptly.
For effective implementation of the scheme, the Union Government asked the State and UT administrations, including Jammu and Kashmir, to regularly monitor the performance of ULBs and lending institutions. Pertinently, SVANidhi was introduced to offer affordable working capital loans to street vendors affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, to help them restart their businesses and pave a way for self-sufficiency—(KNO)