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IMC?s latest: Credit cards for hawkers
A ROOF over their heads, cash on demand and insurance against death and disease - in short, all the trappings of successful businessmen - will soon come the way of City hawkers.
A ROOF over their heads, cash on demand and insurance against death and disease - in short, all the trappings of successful businessmen - will soon come the way of City hawkers.
District Collector Vivek Aggarwal announced on Friday that credit cards with a cash limit of Rs 25,000 would be distributed to 9,364 hawkers identified during a recent survey.
The swarozgar (self-employed) cards, valid for a period of five years but renewable annually, will be distributed at IMC zone offices from September 18 to 30.
In addition to this, hawkers will be provided personal security insurance and efforts are also underway to provide them with low-cost housing units at easy instalments, Aggarwal added.
The Collector’s remarks came during a meeting of district administration, IMC and State Bank of Indore officials. Zila Panchayat CEO Ashutosh Awasthy, State Bank of Indore representative S Pathak, Additional Municipal Commissioner Kumar Purshottam and in-charge of IMC Poverty Alleviation Cell Dr Rajesh Kothari were among those who participated.
Declaring that the scheme was mooted in pursuance of the government’s policy to provide all assistance to hawkers and peddlers, Aggarwal pointed out that the credit cards would help them obtain cash at the lowest interest rates.
The Collector also urged bankers to participate in camps set up at IMC zone offices for processing applications.
This way the hawkers can deposit the forms when they collect photo I-cards for allocation of shops at the proposed hawkers’ zones, thus saving the need for multiple visits.
Awasthy said the ‘swarozgar’ cards were meant to keep hawkers away from the clutches of usurious moneylenders. He said special camps attended by IMC officials as well as representatives of various banks would be set up for distributing the cards at municipal zone offices from Monday.
The Additional Municipal Commissioner instructed subordinates to extensively publicise the credit card scheme so that its benefits could percolate to the widest possible section of peddlers.
The meeting concluded with Slum Alleviation Cell in-charge Dr Kothari listing the dates on which the camps would be set up at various zones.
