In order to make his 19 ministers and senior officials including 13 district collectors well versed with cashless dealings, the CM ordered the shoppers on the busy M.G. Road in Vijayawada to keep their shops open till midnight on Wednesday, so that the VIPs can shop after the first day of the conference was over late in the evening.
The CM’s initiative came after he learnt that most of his ministers and officials had never used their debit cards or credit cards till now. Naidu, who heads a national level high powered committee on demonetisation, is keen on ensuring that at least his ministers, senior IAS officers and lawmakers take to cashless dealings. “Unless we take the initiative, how can we ask people to go less-cash?” the CM asked those present at the collectors’ conference.
Naidu’s initiative follows reports that his Telangana counterpart K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) had asked his ministers to adjust to the less-cash economy and learn to fight elections with little cash in future.
When the AP CM asked his ministers and officials to share their experiences on the second day of the collectors’ conference, most of them were thrilled to have carried out cashless shopping. Labour and Employment Minister K. Atchennaidu said that he had done a purchase by swiping his debit card, but he had to wait for long as there was no connectivity.
Senior IAS official Udaya Lakshmi told the CM that she had purchased a pen for Rs 200 by using her card, but she didn’t receive any message about the transaction even 72 hours after the deal. Deputy Chief Minister N. Chinarajappa narrated some technical glitches while trying to make purchases through cards. Civil Supplies Minister Paritala Sunitha, however, had a smooth sail while using her credit card to purchase some sweets from a nearby shop. She distributed the sweets to the CM and others present at the meeting. Krishna District Collector A. Babu, who had introduced Aadhar based payments in his district, explained how people can buy goods just by mentioning their Aadhar number. The collector was asked to conduct a demonstration for all on Aadahr based transactions. He explained them that anyone can draw money or carry transactions just by mentioning their Aadhar number, a figure print and bank account number. However, there were some ministers and officials who couldn’t successfully conduct their cashless transactions. As only half of the ministers had linked their bank accounts with their Aadhar numbers, they couldn’t carry out their deals. A couple of ministers had neither debit cards nor credit cards and had forgotten their Aadhar numbers. At least two collectors had forgotten their debit card pin number.
Naidu told them to ensure an app on their smartphones so that they can carry Aadhar based transactions in two simple steps. “We will ask all the shopkeepers to install this app either on their smartphones or their PoS (Point of sale) machines so that people can easily switch over to cashless dealings. Installing this app on PoS would cost Rs 2,000, and the government would bear half of it,” he said.
Naidu told the conference that he would utilise their feedback and inputs to improve the cashless methods in the country by discussing them at the next high powered committee meeting that would be held in New Delhi on Wednesday. AP is planning to hold a series of training classes to all ministers, MLAs, MLCs and senior government officials on digital economy and its benefits. The AP government is also planning to purchase PoS machines in large numbers and offer some sops to traders who use them, IT Minister Palle Raghunatha Reddy told this newspaper. The next budget of the state might spell out the steps, he said.