In a first in Hassan district, Channapura village in Holenarsipur taluk has gone cashless. It has secured the tag of a ‘digital village’.
Shopkeeper Mahesh Gowda accepts debit cards or cash transfer through mobile phones. He acquired a mobile point of sale (mPOS) through the Bank of India (BoI) branch at Halekote. “This is easy and safe. People are gradually adopting cashless transactions,” Mr. Gowda said.
The village, which has 250 households, has a population of 480. “Every person, including minors, has a bank account and all of them have been linked to Aadhaar. Among them, 450 have debit cards. Everyone has been trained to handle mobile transactions either through smartphones or USSD technology in case of ordinary phones,” said A. Anirudh, branch manager.
Senior officers of BoI, H.D. Revanna, Holenarsipur MLA, and officers representing Hassan district administration participated in a programme to declare Channapura a ‘digital village’ recently.
“We chose this village as its population size is lesser compared to others in our bank’s jurisdiction, and literacy is 100% here. Gram panchayat president C.R. Virupaksha, and business correspondent C. Nanjunda also cooperated with the bank to make it possible,” said the branch manager. The bank plans to take up similar programmes in other villages of its jurisdiction.
