Additional Chief Secretary (Finance) Amit Khare, monitoring the re-monetisation process in the State, on Wednesday said all the 260 blocks in Jharkhand will go cashless within three months.
He told the Pioneer that one block in each of the 24 districts would be made cashless by December 25.
Notably, the State Government has planned to launch ‘Cashless Jharkhand campaign’ on December 2 from the state level to district, panchayat and village level.
Khare, who also happens to be State’s Development Commissioner, said that more than 83 lakh Jan Dhan bank accounts have been opened in the State. “There are over 1 crore bank accounts in the State presently. Some families have more than one account, so if we take a rough average of 1.5 accounts per family, this means that 66,000 families already have bank accounts. We require around 60,000-70,000 more bank accounts to be opened,” he pointed out.
Khare said that 9,000 bank accounts were opened on November 29 during the ongoing special camps which are being expedited.
Meanwhile, the Government began training of its employees and youths on making cashless transactions from their mobile phones.
A workshop was organized at the State Police headquarters on cashless transactions during which DGP D K Pandey appealed to the police and CRPF officials to stress on cashless transactions and make people in the rural areas aware of it. The experts counted the advantages of cashless transactions during the workshop.
“Two lakh policemen across the State will be trained how to make cashless transactions within one week who will further train five persons
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Khare sets 3-month deadline to turn 260 blocks cashless
each making a total count of 10 lakh trained persons who would be able to make cashless transactions of their own,” said the DGP.
Experts from State Bank of India, during the workshop, gave detailed information about cashless transactions. They also told officials how to download the App SBI Buddy from ‘Google Play Store’, activate and use it safely.
Meanwhile, the DCs have also started identifying blocks in their districts to start the campaign.
“We have got directions from the state headquarters in this regard and started the process of identifying blocks to start the campaign. We will request the banks to make ATM cards available to everyone and ensure that Electronic Point of Sale (EPOS) Machines are installed in all prominent shops,” said Dumka DC Rahul Kumar Sinha. People will also be encouraged to download online transaction Apps like Paytm and will also be trained how to use it, he said.
“Help of bank coordinates will be taken for the purpose,” said Sinha.
Sahebganj DC Sjailesh Chaurasia, on the other hand, stressed on the training part to achieve the target of a cashless state.
“Since training part is most important, we will take help of Pragya Kendra and also select master trainers from within the officers so that extensive campaigning could be launched in the district towards cashless transactions,” said the DC.
“Confidence in making cashless transaction was also important which will be ensured among people though various workshops and seminars organized all over the district,” Chaurasia said. “Since there was network problem in the region, an alternative arrangement like Aadhar-enabled system needs to be developed in the district, he said.
A workshop on cashless transaction was also organized by ICICI Bank at FJCCI building in Ranchi where the businesspersons were made aware of online transactions and were told how to make safe transactions through one’s debit or credit card. Business houses could also transact money though UPI Collect App within five minutes against which a receipt could also be collected later.