PM Modi shares 3 Covid-19 mantras with Madhya Pradesh street vendors

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday cautioned Madhya Pradesh street vendors restarting their business amid the Covid-19 pandemic to follow three mantras — wear mask, pursue cleanliness and maintain social distancing.

“Now when you are starting your business afresh, you have to take some precautions. Until the corona vaccine arrives, you have to take full care of yourself and your customers’ safety. Masks, cleanliness, do gaaj ki doori — all these have to be adopted,” cautioned the PM as he virtually addressed scores of street vendors of Madhya Pradesh who availed the Centre’s PM-SVA Nidhi scheme.

 PM Modi spoke to three select beneficiaries through video conferencing. While speaking to one vegetable seller, he asked whether they are organic and if they are, whether his buyers are aware of it. He also spoke to a tikki seller who runs a stall by the name of ‘Sharma Tikki seller’.

Taking a subtle dig at his predecessors, Modi claimed that there has been a lot of talk of the poor in our country, but the work done for the poor in the last six years has never been done before. “Every area, every sector where the poor-victimsexploited-deprived, were in need, the government’s plans came as its backing,” he said.

Making a strong push for the centre’s pro-poor agenda, Pm Modi said that street vendors now have Ujjwala for gas connection, an electricity connection, connected with Ayushman Bharat scheme and are getting the benefit of the insurance scheme. He also said that now they have a roof of their own.

He was speaking beneficiaries of the Centre’s SVANidhi yojana in MP, which the PM said, has benefited over 1 lakh street vendors in 2 months. “Our poor friends and street vendors heavily felt the crisis. Therefore, since the first day of the Corona crisis, it has been the endeavour of the government to overcome the crisis of the poor,” PM Modi said.

The Centre had launched PM SVANidhi scheme on 1 June, 2020 to help poor street vendors, impacted by Covid-19, resume livelihood activities.