Chief Minister N. Biren Singh on Thursday distributed loans to a total of 1269 vendors of different districts to support them in resuming their vending activities which have been affected by the nationwide lockdown. 803 street vendors were benefitted under the Pradhan Mantri Street Vendor’s Atmanirbhar Nidhi – PM SVANidhi and 466 regular licensed vendors were provided assistance under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) – SHISHU.

Speaking on the occasion, N. Biren Singh said that the Government understands the financial difficulties which the vendors have been facing during the pandemic. The Chief Minister further said that loans would be provided to a total of around 20,000 vendors from different parts of the State. Appreciating the efforts and support of the bank officials in providing loans to the street vendors,

Chief Minister appealed to the banks to disburse the loan amounts to the remaining applicants as soon as possible.

Mentioning the Covid-19 infections in the State, N. Biren Singh said that the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the State is due to the non- compliance of SOPs and protocols issued by the government. He further stated that the government will take stringent action against those who defy the protocols under National Disaster Management Act. He urged the people to strictly follow the guidelines and SOPs issued by the government.

During the function, Chief Minister distributed awards to the officials of Jiribam Municipal Council and Kakching Municipal Council for bagging Cleanest City in NorthEast India and Best City in citizen feedback awards respectively under Swachh Survekshan 2020 which was organized by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Government of India.

Mentioned may be made that Chief Minister N. Biren Singh had already distributed loans to a total of 817 vendors of different districts on August 25, 2020. PM-SVANidhi was launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs on June 15, 2020. It is a special micro-credit scheme for providing affordable working capital loan to street vendors to resume their livelihoods that have been affected due to COVID-19 lockdown. The scheme is valid until March 2022. Under this scheme, the street vendors, who were vending within the limits of an urban local body as on 24th March 2020, can avail working capital loan of up to 10,000, which is repayable in monthly instalments within the tenure of one year. On timely and early repayment of the loan, an Interest subsidy @ 7% per annum will be credited to the bank accounts of beneficiaries through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) on a quarterly basis. The scheme promotes digital transactions through cashback incentives up to an amount of Rs. 7100 per month. The vendors can avail the facility of escalation of the credit limit on timely/early repayment of the loan.

CAF & PD Minister Karam Shyam, Public Health Engineering Minister L. Dikho, Agricultural Minister V. Hangkhanlian, Forest and Environment Minister Awangbow Newmai and MLAs of different Assembly Constituencies also attended the function.