‘Literacy, status not essential in promoting cashless deals’

Krishna district does more than 4,76,000 transactions in a fortnight

Students of various colleges participating in a campaign “Let’s Go Cashless” in Vijayawada.

The Krishna district administration has disproved the theory that literacy is essential for the promotion of cashless transactions. The district has been able to do 4,76,032 cashless transactions in a matter of a fortnight after the announcement of demonetisation. This is a record of sorts, claim the officials.

Joint Collector Gandham Chandrudu said the module developed for the public distribution system (PDS) was ideal for the transactions. Of the 10,21,977 families that purchased ration this month, 46.57 per cent avoided cash transactions.

The number could be achieved because both validations required, one for identity and the other for bank, could be done with a single biometric authentication like a finger print or iris scan, he explained.

No one time password or MPIN was required for validation. The same authentication was sent to the UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) and the NPCI (National Payment Corporation of India) at the same time. Once validated, cash was transferred directly from the account of the ration cardholder to that of the dealer. He said the volume was more than that in all the other 12 districts put together. It might even be more than the cashless transactions in many States, Mr. Chandrudu claimed.

In the absence of currency and an excellent module in place, the ration cardholders preferred cashless transactions. This was evident from the fact that only 27,000 ration cardholders preferred cashless transactions in November.

This was in spite of the government offering to give rations on credit for a month in the wake of demonetisation, the official pointed out.

The district was going to take the facility to undertake cashless transactions to the next level by converting every ration shop dealer into a “business correspondent,” Mr. Chandrudu announced.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi stipulated two POS (point of sales) machines in every village. There are 993 villages, 2,161 ration shops and 1,000 pension disbursement units in the district. The district would have on an average 3.5 business correspondents who would offer a few banking services like cash withdrawal and deposit (limited amount), cash transfer and even balance enquiry, Mr. Chandrudu said. There would be an average of 3.5 POS machines in each village soon. Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu would launch the business correspondents scheme on December 20, he said.