Deepavali is also likely to usher in fresh hopes among hawkers and street vendors across the State, with the government planning to launch its much-touted ‘Badavara Bandhu’ scheme during the festival.
The scheme, a brainchild of Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, aims to provide interest-free loans of up to ₹10,000 to the underprivileged section, to free them from moneylenders.
Cooperation Minister Bandeppa Kashempur told presspersons here on Wednesday that the scheme would initially benefit at least 53,000 people in the State (5,000 in Bengaluru, 3,000 in every city corporation limit, and 1,000 in every district headquarter).
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The borrower need not furnish any guarantee of repayment of the loan.
Mr. Kashempur said that during his visits to APMCs, he had heard from hawkers and street vendors how they were being fleeced by the “meter baddi mafia”. They have to pay ₹100 interest for every ₹1,000 borrowed from such people to fund their small business for a day, he said.
Meanwhile, the government has already issued an order to roll out its ‘Kayaka’ scheme, under which self-help groups will get up to ₹10 lakh soft loans to undertake various works.
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While half of the loan will be interest-free, the remaining will attract an interest of 4%, Mr. Kashempur said.
The Minister said the Cooperation Department was mounting efforts to bring at least 15 lakh more farmers into the institutional credit network as only about 22 lakh (one-third) of the 78 lakh farmers are availing institutional credit through primary agricultural credit cooperative societies (PACCS) at present.
Emulating the Dakshina Kannada example, the department will bring all the 5,300-odd PACCS in the State under common software, Mr. Kashempur said.
Impressed with the robust performance of the cooperative sector in Dakshina Kannada, Mr. Kashempur asked the Registrar of Cooperative Societies M.K. Aiyappa to organise a study tour for office-bearers of DCC banks and PACCS from other districts to Dakshina Kannada.