The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has directed public sector banks to disburse loans to all beneficiaries under the Central government scheme, PM SVANidhi, in 10 days.
At a meeting with bank officials in Ripon Buildings on Tuesday, Corporation Commissioner G. Prakash said the disbursement of loans to 17,000 street vendors would be done in 10 days. Most of the bank branches had failed to disburse the loans during the pandemic.
“Banks have disbursed loans to just 20% of the beneficiaries of the PM SVANidhi scheme in Chennai,” Deputy Commissioner (Revenue and Finance) Meghanatha Reddy said.
Authorities assured
Representatives from public sector banks, including SBI Regional Managers L. Surraj Srinivasan of R2 IT Corridor region and R. Balaji from R1 Chennai Metro region, participated in the meeting and assured the authorities that the points put forth by the Corporation Commissioner would be fulfilled.
According to the data shared by the Corporation, officials had uploaded 11,702 letters of recommendations under the scheme. As many as 1,858 bank branches were on board for the scheme.
Of the 3,835 applications sanctioned by the banks, only 2,195 vendors had received the disbursed loans. Banks had disbursed only ₹2.17 crore under the PM SVANidhi scheme.
The average time taken by the bank branches to sanction the loans was 30 days, officials said. Of the 27,000 street vendors in the city, more than 10,000 had left owing to the pandemic.
Digital payment
Officials said issues with digital payment had led to a delay in the disbursal of loans. Just 2,195 of the vendors were using digital payments.
Though Corporation officials had been helping street vendors set up digital payment methods, many had stopped vending in their original locations owing to the pandemic.
