NEW DELHI, Sept 9:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said that in the last six years, the Government has implemented several measures to make lives of poor easier in the country.
Speaking during the ‘Svanidhi Samvaad’ with street vendors from Madhya Pradesh, the PM said the Government, right from the first day, tried to obliterate the difficulties that the poor and the lower middle class have to face owing to the lockdown and the impact of the pandemic.
He said the Government made all efforts to provide food, ration, free gas cylinders apart from employment through the Prime Minister Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyan.
He said that through the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, Bank accounts of more than 40 crore poor, lower middle class people have been opened and now they directly receive all the benefits to their accounts and that it is easier for them to get loans. He listed similar achievements in other schemes like Digital Health Mission, Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana, Prime Minister Jeevan Jyoti Yojana and Ayushman Bharat.
The Prime Minister said that in the last six years several measures have been implemented to make the lives of the poor easier in the country. He said the government launched a major scheme to provide accommodation in cities and major towns at an affordable rent.
He referred to the One Nation One Ration Card which would enable any body to get affordable rations any where in the country.
The Prime Minister also referred to the ongoing programme of laying Optical Fibre to 6 Lakh Villages in the next 1000 days. This, he said, will join the entire rural India to the domestic and international markets and would further boost the rural livelihood.
Prime Minister said the Government has also focussed on another vulnerable section that is the Street Vendors and announced the PM Svanidhi Yojana in order to provide cheap Capital to those vendors so that they can restart their livelihood businesses. Mr Modi said that this is for the first time that lakhs of Street Vendors are directly connected to the system so that they can start getting the benefit.
The Government had launched PM Svanidhi scheme on 1st June, 2020 to help poor street vendors, impacted by COVID-19, resume livelihood activities. 4.5 lakh street vendors were registered in Madhya Pradesh, out of which acceptance has been granted to around 1.4 lakh street vendors of amount worth Rs 140 crore.
The Prime Minister said the aim of the Svanidhi yojana is to provide Swarozgar, Svavlamban and Swabhimaan (Self Employment, Self-Sustenance and Self-Confidence) to the Street Vendors.
PM stressed the importance of making every street-vendor know everything about this scheme.
”This scheme has been made so simple that even ordinary people can connect with it. He said that one can get registered with the scheme through the common service center or in the municipality office by uploading the application and no need to stand in queue. Not only this Business Correspondent from the bank and municipal staff can also come and take the application from the street vendors,” the PM said.
He said this scheme gives upto 7 percent rebate on the interest and if one repays the money taken from the bank within 1 year, then one will get an interest rebate. He added that in digital transactions there is a cash back also.
In this way, total savings will be more than the total interest. He said that the trend of digital transactions in the country has been increasing rapidly during the last 3-4 years.
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