Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh has emerged as the number one state in the country in providing benefits on as many as eight welfare schemes to the poor and needy, an official statement said on Sunday.
"In a major accomplishment for Uttar Pradesh Government led by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the state has emerged as number one in the country in providing benefits of as many as eight welfare schemes to the poor and needy. The achievement also bears testimony to the sensitivity of CM Yogi towards common people. The eight schemes include PM SVANidhi Yojana among others, which seeks to uplift street vendors by providing them interest-free loans for running their businesses," the statement said.
The eight schemes include PM SVANidhi Yojana among others, which seeks to uplift street vendors by providing them with interest-free loans for running their businesses.
Uttar Pradesh topped the country by providing the benefits of the scheme to the maximum number of street vendors. Madhya Pradesh ranks second and Telangana third in taking the welfare scheme to the people. On the occasion, State Urban Development Agency (SUDA) Director Dr Anil Kumar said, "CM Yogi's aim is to provide benefits of state and central schemes to every section of the society in the state irrespective of caste or creed. He has given clear instructions to all the departments to take the benefits of the schemes to the person in the last rung of ODF society without any kind of discrimination on the basis of religion and caste."
"On the basis of applications received so far in the state, the first instalment of the loan under PM SVANidhi Yojana was distributed to 9,57,771 street vendors, the second to 2,29,014 and the third to 7,391 beneficiaries in the state. Loans amounting to Rs 1452.74 crore were distributed to a total of 11,94,176 beneficiaries in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Madhya Pradesh has disbursed loans to 7,05,300 beneficiaries and Telangana to 5,09,590," he added.
The first, second and third instalments of loans being provided to the street vendors under PM SVANidhi Yojana are Rs 10,000, Rs 20,000 and Rs 50,000 respectively.
SUDA director Anil Kumar mentioned that street vendors and their families are also availing benefits from the multiple government schemes.
"Along with PM SVANidhi, the street vendors and their families are also availing benefits of PM Jeevan Jyoti, PM Suraksha Bima, Jan Dhan Account, One Nation One Ration Card, Janani Suraksha Yojana, PM Matritva Vandana Yojana, PM Shramyogi Maandhan and Registration under BOCW. The benefit of this scheme is being given in the state under the Swanidhi se Samriddhi program, in which 17,37,641 people were given the benefit of the scheme in the first phase, 3,19,260 in the second and 17,549 in the third," he said.
So far, the benefit of eight central schemes has been given to 20,74,450 people in the state. At the same time, Uttar Pradesh is also on top in the country in terms of digital transactions done by vendors. At present, there are 4,90,240 digital active vendors in the state, who have carried out digital transactions of Rs 63,78,24,790 so far. Maximum digital vendors are active in Varanasi, Firozabad, Prayagraj, Jhansi and Lucknow in the state, the official statement mentioned.
"In a review meeting regarding PM SVANidhi, CM Yogi directed officials to prioritise the promotion of digital transactions by making digitally inactive vendors with zero transactions under PM SVANidhi active. Along with this, instructions were given to run a campaign to update the UPIID and mobile numbers of vendors using IDs other than the UPIID received from the bank on the portal. The campaign will seek to motivate vendors for digital activity in weekly camps every month under "Main Bhi Digital Abhiyan" and "SVANidhi Se Samriddhi," the official statement said. —ANI