70,000 traders have applied for government loan

The state government in an effort to help the traders who were affected by the December rains and the subsequent floods, launched a loan scheme with an interest-free loan of Rs 5,000. 

In line with the scheme, officials announced that special camps would be conducted from January 22 to 31. Registrar of co-operatives Jayashree Muralidharan, coordinator of the scheme on Wednesday explained the aspects of the scheme besides clearing the doubts raised by traders.  

She said that they have received applications from 70,450 traders till date for getting the loan. On January 25 alone, 5,180 applications were received and Rs 2.59 lakh loan disbursed. A majority of the applicants were hawkers, she added. 

So far 1,582 special camps have been held. Since it is an interest-free loan, they could complete the tenure within a period of 25 months, she said, and added that the processing work would be completed within 48 hours from the time of receiving application and the loan would be disbursed.