Ladakh ranked third among all the Union Territories for implementing PM Street Vendors AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PMSVANidhi) Yojana, a scheme to support street vendors adversely affected due to COVID-19.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs ranked Ladakh during a review meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 25. The meeting was attended by The Advisor Umang Narula; Commissioner-Secretary, Housing and Urban Development Department, Ladakh, Ajeet Kumar Sahu; Divisional Commissioner, Saugat Biswas, and Administrative Secretary Ladakh, Ravinder Kumar.

The PMSVANidhi Scheme was launched on 1 June 2020, as a component of Atma-Nirbhar Bharat to support the street vendors due to the adverse effect of COVID-19. The scheme aims to facilitate collateral-free working capital loans up to ₹ 10,000 of one year tenure; incentivize regular repayment through interest subsidy @ 7% per annum and reward digital transactions by cashback up to ₹1200 per year. The scheme targets to cover 50 lakh street vendors in the whole country by March 2022. 

Ladakh administration and Hill Councils made a special effort to provide the benefit of the scheme to all the Street Vendors of Leh and Kargil cities. All the eligible street vendors have been provided SVANidhi cards by achieving a 100% target. A lot of street vendors have now used their cards for drawing loans up to ₹10,000 as capital support to their small businesses.

Lieutenant Governor, RK Mathur appreciated the team of the Housing and Urban Development department for making exceptional progress and asked them to provide all support to the Street vendors for running their businesses smoothly.

MP Ladakh, Jamyang Tsering Namgyal, who himself has been a forerunner in spreading awareness of the scheme has also conveyed his appreciation to the administration.