Call to promote e-transactions

Special awareness drive will be organised in rural areas: Collector

Tirupati: The district officials have embarked on an ambitious exercise to promote cashless transactions more so in rural areas to take the district towards e-economy, thanks to the demonetisation stirring the administration turn on cashless transactions.

District Collector Siddarth Jain said that the district is more ideal for taking up cashless transaction towards achieving e-economy as it is having substantial number of Aadhaar linked bank accounts with debit card facility.

Speaking to the media here on Thursday after series of meeting with bankers, traders, mobile operators and university Vice-Chancellors, the Collector said that the district administration has taken up massive awareness programme to see that more and more people opting cashless transaction modes as a permanent solution to overcome any cash crunch and also ensure transparency in trade and commerce.

There are 29 lakh bank accounts in the 593 branches of 40 banks apart from 10 lakh more Jan Dhan accounts. In this, 90 per cent of them are Aadhaar linked while 80 per cent of the account holders having debit or RuPay cards. In other words, 90 per cent of the people in the district having bank accounts, the Collector informed.

Against the backdrop, efforts are on to ensure all the people are having bank accounts with debit or credit card facility in the district as part of the special drive to promote cashless transactions, he added.

“The 593 bank branches and its 795 business correspondents will take up drive to open new accounts on war foot basis and issue Debit or RuPay cards,” he said.

The administration had roped in the universities to bring awareness among the students on the cashless transactions while at the same time holding series of meeting with the representatives of various trade and commerce associations and mobile operators on promoting cashless transactions in the district among farmers, students, women and other sections.

In this connection, the Collector said that demonetisation had triggered mobile transaction increase manifold which was evident with the transactions which was only in few hundred crossed 5.6 lakh now The Joint Collector had already held discussion with the fair price shops on taking up cashless transactions through ePoS from December, Jain said adding that it was also proposed to make the ration shops as repository for supplying of more four or five items (apart from rice, sugar, oil which are being supplied through fair price shops now) through ePoS to ease cash crunch in the district

To accelerate the promotion of cashless transactions, 19,707 ePoS machines will be handed over to the banks to provide them to their customers, he said. Jain categorically said that there is no difficulty for payment of salaries to the government employees on December 1, scholarship to students, NREGS payment and also to farmers, who are supplying milk.

So far, about 500 crore of old notes exchanged while Rs 100 crore including 31 lakh pieces of Rs 100 notes is on hand, he said ruling out any cash crunch in the district and exuded confidence that things will become normal soon with the supply of Rs 500 new notes. He also sought the people not to believe the rumours about cash shortage and also on the Rs 2,000 notes saying it is not valid.

About the complaints of irregularities in the exchange of notes received, he said a close watch is being kept on post offices and banks and warned of stern action on those found indulging in irregularities in the exchange of notes.