VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has exhorted industrialists to adopt villages for transforming them into digital villages, where the power of electronics and communication technologies is utilised optimally.
Such projects can be implemented as part of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives, for which there was no dearth of funds, he observed.
He thanked the banks for waiving cash-handling charges on transactions done online and through mobile phones.
Reviewing the status of cashless transactions through a teleconference on Saturday, Mr. Naidu said banks were obviously under pressure to meet customer expectations after demonetisation, and their efforts would not go waste.
People should realise that the days of physical cash were over, and the future belonged to digital transactions.
One-fourth of the nearly two-crore workers in the unorganised sector in Andhra Pradesh did not have bank accounts.
A greater degree of financial inclusion could be achieved by opening bank accounts in their names.
Mr. Naidu said the responsibility of facilitating online and mobile phone – based transactions was to be borne by the heads of departments. Cashless payments began through e-POS machines at fair price shops in five districts on the desired scale and others were yet to catch up, he said.
The experiment of electronic tokens in rythu bazaars, which was successful in Krishna district, could be replicated, he said, and asserted that adequate security had to be provided at banks and ATMs.
