All ryots to be covered: Harish Rao

Service opened at Siddipet, to be extended to State

: Irrigation Minister T. Harish Rao said cardless and cashless services will soon be extended to the farming community across the State.

This would make things easy for farmers while selling their produce and purchasing the required items without facing a problem for small change, said Mr. Harish Rao inaugurating the service at Siddipet Rythu Bazaar on Tuesday. The Marketing Department in association with the HDFC Bank will run the service. This is the second such facility in the State after Kukatpally Rythu Bazaar in Hyderabad.

“The customer has to bring their Aadhaar card and debit or credit card. They will be issued coupons for the purchase against their bank balance and after purchase they can submit the remaining coupons and get money back or the amount credited to their accounts,” said Mr. Harish Rao.

He called upon the farmers to make use of this service effectively and suggested all of them open bank accounts.

As part of promoting cashless transactions, the minister distributed debit cards to 36 farmers at the Rythu Bazaar provided by the Axis Bank.

“Money will be credited into the accounts of farmers after they sell paddy. Farmers coming to the yard should bring their Aadhaar cards to open new accounts,” said the minister. This facility was implemented on an experimental basis at Warangal, which produced good result and would be replicated at Gajwel market too, he observed.

District Collector P. Venkataram Reddy said that farmers should make a habit of carrying Aadhaar cards. The authorities would issue coupons to customers based on finger prints in the Aadhaar data and they could submit these coupons and get vegetables from farmers.

The cash would be credited into the farmers’ accounts once they submit the coupons.