Being cashless is a distant dream of residents of Badjhiri village, which was declared as the first cashless villages of Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday, as the villager’s don’t even have the facility of ATM cards.
A programme was organized in the village on Tuesday for the purpose and it was claimed by the government that Badjhiri has become the first cashless village of the state, but the villagers are surprised as nothing of that sort facility is available in the village, as claimed during the programme.
This correspondent on Wednesday visited the village to know the ground realities and was amazed to find that reality quite different. The residents are puzzled as they do not even have the ATM cards or smart phones for making cashless transactions.
Around 60 per cent people of the village are not educated and are unable to use the Point of Sale (POS) machine or ATM machine. The cash depositing machines went out of service on the first day after its inauguration.
It was claimed that 10 POS machines have been provided to the shops in the village, while factually, only one POS was found in only one shop.
While talking to The Pioneer, Devi Ram of the village says, “People of the village are not that educated to use the ATMs and asking them to use digital or cashless way of transaction would change nothing. They have not even provided the ATM cards to the all the people of the village.”
Another resident of the same village, Kakku Bai says, “I have no concern with the whole cashless thing as I have no money to deposit or spend. The government should provide electricity and good education instead of making the village digital.”
On the other hand, the youths are delighted with this announcement hoping that there village would soon be connected with the world via internet.
An engineering student, Sandeep Sen says, “It is a wonderful initiative of the government and Bank of Baroda. I am happy as they have provided the free wi-fi for the people. Internet is very useful for my studies, so I would thank the Bank of Baroda. I have accepted this change as I am a youth but the other villagers, who are uneducated, would never be able to make cashless transactions.”
On the contrary, Bank of Baroda’s General Manager Rajendra Kumar claimed that debit cards have been provided to all the people of the village and POS machines have been installed in all the major shops of the village. As many as 10 POS machines have been installed in the shops of the village.
Kumar says, “We have provided free wi-fi to the people and distributed five smart phones to the people. We are organizing various workshops and seminars to spread awareness regarding the digital or cashless transactions. It would take some time to create an ideal cashless village but with the support of the people and by educating them, we would make the whole village cashless soon.”