Swanidhi Mahotsava has been organised on July 29 for street vendors at Suresh Bhat Hall, Reshimbag, from 10 am with a view to making them self-reliant and raise their standard of life.
Nagpur Municipal Corporation has organised the mahotsava under Deendayal Antyoday Yojna and Rashtriya Nagari Upajivika Abhiyan of Social Welfare Department to mark Azadi Ka Amrut Mahotsava. The Union Housing & Urban Affairs Directorate has given directives to celebrate the mahotsava in 75 iconic places in the country, including Nasik, Kalyan-Dombivli, Murtizapur and Nagpur, from July 1 to August 14.
Nitin Gadkari, Union Road Transport & Highways Minister, will inaugurate the programme at 7 pm while Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy Chief Minister, will be the chief guest. Legislators from the city, Manukumar Srivastava, Chief Secretary, Sonia Sethi, Principal Secretary, Urban Development, Amitesh Kumar, Commissioner of Police, R Vimla, District Collector, Radhakrishnan B, Municipal Commissioner and Administrator of NMC, Manoj Kumar Suryavanshi, Chairman, NIT, and Dr Kiran Kulkarni, Municipal Council Administrative Directorate, will be the guests of honour.
This was stated by Dipak Kumar Meena, Additional Municipal Commissioner, while addressing a press conference here on Thursday. He said that there would be in all 106 stalls of street vendors, roadside vendors selling eatables, Self-Help Groups and the department, which will be open for sale from 10 am to 10 pm on Friday. There will be training programme, cultural event, felicitates, street play, health camp etc. The corporation has organised various competitions online for family members of the vendors and the winners will get prizes. A loan mela has also organised under PM Swanidhi and Deendayal scheme-Upajivika campaign, Meena added.
On the occasion, Vijay Humne, Deputy Commissioner, Social Welfare, said that a survey conducted by corporation found 36,000 street vendors dealing in various items. Over 23,000 beneficiaries got loan amount to the tune of Rs 26.31 crore form the banks for running the business. They will get five per cent subsidy in the bank interest also. The vendors got shattered financially owing to coronavirus pandemic during the last two years and now efforts are being made to provide them livelihood facilities, he added.
Dr Ranjana Lade, Deputy Commissioner, was also present at the press conference.