Food cards at Parliament canteens soon as digital drive fails to take off

THE LS SECRETARIAT IS PREPARING TO INTRODUCE THESE CARDS WHICH ARE SIMILAR TO THOSE FOR THE METRO

NEWDELHI: Members and Parliament staff may get prepaid “food cards” to pay bills at House canteens in yet another push for cashless transactions at the cafes, where cash is still the king.

The Lok Sabha secretariat is preparing to introduce these cards — similar to those for the Metro — after a failed bid to promote the use of credit and debit cards in Parliament’s four canteens following last year’s demonetisation. “We have tied up with the State Bank of India (SBI) to introduce the new system. There will be card readers in the canteens and it will make payments easier than dealing with cash,” Ashok Kumar Singh, who is additional secretary in the Lok Sabha secretariat and is in charge of the canteens, said on Monday.

The cards can be refilled at the bank’s Parliament complex branches.

After Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the decision to withdraw 1,000 and 500-rupee banknotes on November 8 last year, Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan had launched POS (point of sales) machines in all the cafes. But it was a nonstarter, as people preferred to pay for their food, which is highly subsidised, in cash.

“A vegetarian thali costs around ₹40. A masala dosa is priced at ₹20. People continued to pay these small amounts in cash,” said an official.