The move will benefit street vendors who do not have identity cards and certificates

Street vendors can now avail loans under PM SVANidhi Scheme by providing a Letter of Recommendation (LoR) from Urban Local Body(ULB), the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs(MoHUA) said in a statement on Friday.

Launching the new module, MoHUA said the LoR module is designed to give access to street vendors who do not have Identity Card (ID) and Certificate of Vending (CoV) and are not in the surveyed list for availing benefits under the scheme.

A vendor can now apply for LoR from ULB through the online module or a simple application on white paper to conduct local enquiry to ascertain the genuineness of the claim as vendor, the statement said.

To apply for LoR the vendor needs to possess any one of the documents, (i) Proof of availing one -time assistance, provided by certain States /UTs, during the period of lockdown; or (ii) The membership details with the vendors’ associations; or (iii) Any other documents to prove that he is a vendor.

The vendors possessing LoR will be issued Certificate of Vending / ID Card within a period of 30 days.

“Since commencement of online submission of loan applications on PM SVANidhi portal on 2nd July 2020, more than 4.45 lakh applications have been received and over 82,000 have been sanctioned in different States and UTs,” the statement reads.

PM SVANidhi was launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, on June 01, 2020, for providing affordable Working Capital loan upto to ₹ 10,000 to street vendors to resume their livelihoods that have been adversely affected due to Covid-19 lockdown. This scheme targets to benefit over 50 lakh Street Vendors who had been vending on or before 24 March, 2020, in urban areas and peri-urban/ rural areas.