ROURKELA: Even 8 days after demonetisation, cashless economy is a distant dream in rural pockets of Sundargarh district. In Rourkela, though, people have already shifted to electronic financial transactions and payment through cheques.
At the remote mining areas of Bimlagarh, Koida, Tensa and Barsuan under Koida mining circle of the district, digital transactions are not gaining popularity due to poor internet connectivity and insistence of mining and transport workers on cash.
Banking industry sources said the city is rapidly moving towards adopting a digital payment system amid thrust on individual and institutional levels.
Sources at the Regional Office of SBI said majority of the 46 SBI branches in Panposh and Bonai sub-divisions are located at Rourkela city and are reporting significant drop in cash transactions. SBI Regional Manager B B Das said that payments through cash at the city’s SBI branches have almost been halved with bulk payment being made through cheques or internet banking. He claimed the city’s mobile banking transactions have seen three-fold rise and even adjacent rural pockets, including Birda, Birkera and Jagda areas are also showing healthy growth. Das said, at present, awareness programme on digital banking services is underway at block level.
The Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) has introduced digital transactions in all its service providing departments at its captive township. The RSP-run Ispat General Hospital (IGH) had completely shifted to digital transaction from December end. However, this has brought associated problems to the fore.
Members of the Lead Rourkela, led by its president, Gagan Panda, on Wednesday drew the attention of the administration to the sufferings of the illiterate rural patients and their relatives. Panda said patients can’t be denied treatment on grounds of digital payment and there should be dual mode of receiving payments as those uncomfortable with digital or cheque payments should be allowed to pay in cash.
A senior official of Nabard admitted that rural masses are slow to adopt digital transactions. He said Customer Service Points of SBI and other bank correspondents with more than 150 PoS (Point of Sale) and AEPS (Aadhaar Enabled Payment Service) machines at remote pockets are pushing for cashless transactions. He said the Nabard is also working to enable 30 VSAT links to rural branches of SBI and 12 to Utkal Gramya Bank for uninterrupted internet service.