The Mamata Banerjee government is set to implement Pradhan Mantri Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi, a central plan that ensures a soft loan of Rs 10,000 each to hawkers, as the top brass at Nabanna has realised that the scheme could help more than 50,000 such traders in Bengal in the post-lockdown period.

After the PM-Kisan scheme, AtmaNirbhar Nidhi would be the second welfare plan by the Union government that the Trinamul Congress dispensation would sign up for after initial resistance.

“It has been decided in principle that the Centre’s scheme for hawkers would be implemented in Bengal. The urban development department would do the needful to implement the scheme in the state,” said a senior government official.

Sources said the Centre had launched the scheme in July last year with an aim to help street vendors, who suffered a lot during the Covid-19-induced lockdown.

“The primary objective of the scheme is to ensure a collateral-free loan to street vendors so that they can start their business again in the post-lockdown period,” said an official.

According to sources, hawkers authorised by local bodies like municipal corporations are eligible for the scheme.

“But the state government did not implement the scheme. Instead, the chief minister had announced a one-time grant of Rs 2,000 for street vendors in Bengal,” said a source.

But just ahead of the Assembly polls, the top brass of the government felt that depriving people of central schemes was not going down well with voters and it was giving an unnecessary handle to the BJP to criticise the ruling party in Bengal, sources said.

“During the Duare Sarkar programme, state government officials manning the camps found that people were inquiring about central schemes. That gave a hint that people were not happy with the state government’s decision of not implementing a series of central schemes,” said an official.

According to sources, people’s interest in availing themselves of the central schemes was evident after more than 22 lakh farmers applied for PM-Kisan that ensures financial assistance of Rs 6,000 annually to farmers. The state government did not implement the scheme since 2019 when it was launched.

“This had put pressure on the state ahead of the polls, particularly when the BJP started criticising Trinamul for not implementing the scheme in the state. Accepting the PM-Kisan scheme was the first step and now it appears the scheme for the street vendors would be the second step to counter the BJP’s criticism,” said a source.

In Bengal, more than 50,000 street vendors have identity cards issued by civic bodies, most of whom are from the Calcutta Municipal Corporation area.

“The chief minister has already said she does not want to deprive anybody of any benefit. If the scheme helps any of the street vendors, we don’t want to put up any obstacle,” said a minister.