HPasksfair-price shopstogocashless, effortsontomake these‘microATMs’

SHIMLA: At time when talks are high to make cashless system a reality, the Himachal government has asked fair-price shops in the state to go cashless. Not only this, soon people can even withdraw money from these shops as efforts are on to make such shops a cash withdrawal point.

Shops have been asked to install point-of-sale (PoS) machines or register them on online payment platforms. There is one FPS for 1,400 people in the state while a bank branch for 3,000 people.

Principal secretary (food and civil supply) Tarun Kapoor said, “Fair-price shops owners have been asked to make arrangements to facilitate people with online payment. These efforts are made to deal with the cash crunch and make the economy cashless,” Kapoor told Hindustan Times.

The government held a meeting to make cashless system a reality in fair-price shops across the state besides turning these into mini ATMs. On November 7, Centre issued a circular to states in this regard.

“Putting POS machines at FPS is a matter relating to banks. We have convened a meeting attended by bank officials to explore the possibility of making FPSes money withdrawl points,” Kapoor added.

Himachal has a network of 4,800 fair-price shops and subsidised ration is being provided to each person through 1,741,789 ration cards in the state on a monthlybasis. FPS network is probably a large network in HP. At least 32.90 lakh people have been covered under the scheme, including around 27 lakh below poverty line, antyodaya ann yojana (AAY) beneficiaries and total supply of grain from Centre, including rice and wheat, is 15,496 metric tonnes (MT) of which wheat is 9,101 MT and rice is 6,315 MT. HTC