Richness of poor is their attitude to pay back loans: PM Narendra Modi

Balsore (Odisha): Highlighting the central government's effort to empower the poor and eradicate poverty from the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said the richness of India's poor lies in their attitude to pay back loans taken from banks under the 'Pradham Mantri Mudra Yojana'.

The Prime Minister said this while addressing a public meeting here as part of BJP's series of eight meetings on completion of two years in office.

"The richness of the poor people of India is to repay the loans taken fom the banks under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana," Modi said.

He said the NDA government had launched the PM Mudra Yojana a year ago to financially assist traders engaged in petty business activities.

Under the scheme, small-time traders are able to avail loans of Rs 50,000 to Rs 10 lakh without collateral security.

"Of 10 crore poor families in the country, 3.5 crore families have taken benefit of the scheme. Some of them have even started paying back to banks," Modi said, adding, this was the richness of the poor people.

The Prime Minister said he thought of such a scheme only after realizing that the poor and middle class people owning businesses face difficulties in getting loans from banks.

"Therefore, we decided to launch the scheme so that they would not face problems. So far about Rs 1.25 lakh crore has been disbursed under the scheme," the Prime Minister said.