Bhubaneswar MC to provide COVID assistance to 12,000 street vendors

BHUBANESWAR: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has listed 12,000 street vendors to administer financial assistance of Rs 3,000 each to them to sustain their livelihoods. The financial grant is to be provided via Direct Benefit transfer (DBT) from Monday, June 21 onwards. The move came after Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced the financial assistance for the street vendors from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund (CMRF) in the state.

The officials from the BMC said that Rs 3.57 crore have been earmarked for the purpose. A total of 14,752 street vendors are registered with BMC and 11,922 have been shortlisted in the first phase. The Government of Odisha, last year, also allocated Rs 3,000 to each street vendor across 114 urban local bodies in the state due to loss of livelihoods during the pandemic.