Archana Sharma, a street vendor in Gwalior on Wednesday thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi after receiving Rs 10,000 loan under PM Street Vendor's AtmaNirbhar Nidhi for restarting her stall.
Speaking to ANI, Sharma said, "I got Rs 10,000 loan under PM Street Vendor's AtmaNirbhar Nidhi and restarted my stall as due to COVID-19 lockdown it was shut. I thanked the PM for the loan." She said that she never thought of getting the opportunity to talk to Prime Minister.
"I came to know about the scheme through my neighbours and later by the government official. I got the loan amount from Central Bank after it was approved. I am very happy. I never thought that I will talk to Prime Minister," she added.
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held an interaction with street vendors from Madhya Pradesh as part of 'Svanidhi Samvaad'.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Union Urban Development Minister Hardeep Singh Puri also participated in the event, held through video conferencing.
The Prime Minister spoke to three vendors from Indore, Gwalior, and Raisen about the benefits they had received under the PM Street Vendor's AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) scheme and the difficulties, if any, they had to face in procuring the seed capital for their business under the scheme.
The Centre had launched PM SVANidhi scheme on June 1, 2020, to help poor street vendors, impacted by COVID-19 resume their livelihood activities. Madhya Pradesh stands first in the number of total applications accepted, with 47 per cent of these coming from the State alone.
