Only 0.01 pc street vendors from minority communities benefitted from Centre’s loan scheme: Asaduddin Owaisi

New Delhi: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday hit out at the Central government on the “Sabka Sath” mantra and claimed that out of 32 lakh loans given to street vendors, only 0.0102 per cent went to minorities communities.

Taking to Twitter, Owaisi said, “Government data destroys Modi’s sabka saath myth. Out of 32 lakh loans given to street vendors, only 331 went to minorities. That’s just 0.0102 per cent. This is despite the fact that a disproportionately larger number of Muslim minorities work in unorganised sector.”

“Modi is implementing the vision of Savarkar-Golwalkar and making Muslims second-class citizens,” he added.

AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi also shared a link to a blog of a Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), in which a Right To Information (RTI) query by Venkatesh Nayak, a member of the CHRI was mentioned.

According to the data shared by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) on the RTI query, only 0.01 per cent of street vendors belonging to minority communities have benefitted from the Centre’s PM SVANidhi scheme between June 2020 and May 2022.

A total of 32.26 lakh loans were disbursed across the country under the scheme during this period of which only 331 of these



beneficiaries are street vendors belonging to minority communities. This is 0.0102 per cent of the total number of beneficiaries.

The RTI query also mentioned that only 3.15 per cent of beneficiaries were from the ST category and just 0.92 per cent were persons with disabilities (PwD).

Maharashtra reported the highest number (162) of minority community beneficiaries, followed by Delhi (110), Telangana (22), Gujarat (12) and Odisha (8). Andhra Pradesh reported three disbursals and Rajasthan two in this category.

Uttar Pradesh reported the highest success rate of 100 per cent, meaning all 12 applications were able to secure the first loan, followed by Delhi, Telangana and Gujarat. Even though Maharashtra did record the largest number of applications for both first and second loans, the success rate in the state was only 56.45 per cent.

When it comes to those in the PwD category, Tamil Nadu had the highest number of first loan applications (8,631) followed by Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka.

Out of the loans disbursed to those in the PwD category, Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest number (7,278) for first and second loans.

The country-wide PM SVANidhi scheme for street vendors was implemented by the Centre in June 2020.