To ease the brunt of demonetisation on common man, Rajasthan civil supplies department braces up to go cashless by January 31. Setting time-bound goals for Rajasthan ration dealers, the state will take a major step towards cashless transactions by January and aims to adopt full-fledged digitalization by March 31.
Rajasthan Relies on Digital Technologies for Domestic Purchase, Rajasthan Ration Dealers will go Cashless
In a meeting with media, Mr. Subodh Agarwal, Principal Secretary of Food and Civil Supplies shed light on transactions between FCI (Food Corporation of India) and RSFCSC (Rajasthan State Food and Civil Supplies Corporation). To battle the currency crisis existing in market these days, state food supply department will take a step towards transparent cashless transactions. By January 31, sale and purchase of supplies between RSFCSC and ration dealers will be made cashless. Once they successfully accomplish this seemingly hard mission, they’ll cover dealer-consumer transactions in the next level. In short, the state aims to introduce complete cashless, digital system in food delivery system.
How will They Achieve this Seemingly Impossible Goal?
As of now, about 62,26,353 ration card holders (63%) of the total popular holds a bank account linked with their ration card. The state is also working on AEPS (Aadhaar Enabled Payment System) which is suitable for carrying out five types of cashless payments, as suggested by the Centre.
To implement complete digitalization, Rajasthan government will create a PDS database wherein 100% bank accounts will be linked to Aadhar cards in order to go fully digital. This system will likely be implemented in the second phase of digitalization drive. The target date set for this task is March 31.
Recently, a review meeting conducted by the Centre reveals Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan as two states that occupy leading positions on PDS system in India. While Andhra is on number one position, Rajasthan is at second position. The state already has PoS and micro ATMs at public places. Many small-scale vendors have started accepting PayTm as well. With digitalization of ration supply, Rajasthan will soon catch up with Andhra Pradesh.
