Dhasai, a village in tribal Murbad tehsil of Thane district, is all set to become the first cashless village in Maharashtra.
Beginning Thursday, nearly 100 traders, businessmen, vegetable and fruit vendors, chemists, doctors and others providing goods and services will use swiping machines to undertake cashless transaction in Dhasai, which has a population.
In line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s move to usher in cashless economy in the country, Bank of Baroda ( BoB) – in association with a local NGO Swatantryaveer Savarkar Rashtriya Smarak – will be distributing 39 swiping machines among the traders, businessmen and other goods and service providers in the village on Thursday.
“Within days after the Prime Minsiter announced the decision of demonetisation, I came up with the idea of turning Dhasai into a cashless village with minimum investment. I approached Bank of Baroda and explained them my idea. The Bank readily agreed to distribute their bank’s swiping machines to goods and service providers in the village,” chairman of the Swatantryaveer Savarkar Rashtriya Smarak
Ranjit Savarkar told The Pioneer on Wednesday.
According to Savarkar, the villagers will be using their existing credit and debit cards issued by various banks and also RuPay cards issued by various banks which a majority of Jan Dhan scheme account holders possess to make their day-to-day purchases and also pay money towards the various services received by them.
"The 39 swiping machines to be distributed by BoB will be sufficient enough to cover the needs of goods and service providers operating in the village. The BoB will be setting up e-counter to take care of the needs of the goods and service providers as also people in the village," Savarkar said.
With a population of 10,000, Dhasai village has currently two banks – one nationalized bank and a district co-operative bank. Being a marketing hub, people from several neighbouring villages visit this village every day.
“The daily turnover in this village is around Rs 10 lakh. I am not saying that all the people in the village will at one go start using swipe cards to make their day-to-day purchases and pay for the services received. Even if we are able popularize cashless transaction concept among 60 to 70 per cent of the total population in our village, we will have achieved a great deal. And the Dhasai cashless model can be replicated elsewhere in Maharashtra and also the country,” Savarkar said.