Farmers and small-time merchants who participate in weekly markets in rural areas find the idea of cashless transactions, necessitated by the demonetisation, impossible as of now.
Channe Gowda, a resident of Salagame village in Hassan taluk, sells vegetables at the weekly market every Sunday. In the past three days, he has been seeing poor turnout at the market, which has had a direct impact on his earnings.
“People do not have cash in hand. As Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes are no longer accepted, people have become cautious while spending,” he said. “I am told that in the future we have to carry card-swipe machines. Forget handling debit cards, I hardly go to the bank for money transactions. I am clueless about cashless transactions,” he said.
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Similar is the response from Ismail, who sells farm tools. “I have watched experts speaking about cashless transactions. That may come into effect if people stop carrying cash. However, farmers, who are our customers, prefer cash. Many have never even used debit cards though they had got them after opening their bank accounts,” he said. He said he used to have business of Rs. 3,000 a day, but this Sunday he hardly earned Rs. 1,000.
It is a similar story for the vegetable sellers. In fact, many of them brought fewer vegetables to the market this time. “I hardly earn Rs. 1,500 a day. How can I give change to those who give Rs. 2,000?” asked Lakshmamma, a vegetable trader. “Who gave the government the idea of printing such a high denomination note?”