VARANASI: The district magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma was conferred with the national award for the implementation of Pradhan Mantri Svanidhi Yojana from the Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a function organised at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi on Thursday.
The Prime Minister's Street Vendor Self-Reliant Fund (PM Swanidhi) launched in June 2020 benefited the street vendors and their lives got back on track after the Covid-induced lockdown period.
Varanasi, which is the parliamentary constituency of the Prime Minister, topped in the country for the implementation of this scheme in 2021. The award was announced by the Ministry of personnel and administrative reforms.
According to officials of district urban development authority (DUDA), till now about 70 per cent men and 30 per cent women have taken loans under this scheme. A loan of Rs 10,000 was given to 30,790 street vendors each, amounting Rs 30.55 crore, to do the work under Pradhan Mantri Svanidhi Yojana.
In this, the total interest subsidy was 0.54 crore. The total cash back paid to the street vendors was Rs 5,46,925. The government disbursed another loan of Rs 20,000 each to those doing business successfully, of which Rs 1.87 crore were given to 937 street vendors. Later, they got Rs 66,8,86 cashback.
