NT NETWORK
PANAJI
The state government is bracing to become the first cashless state in the country. All government departments in the state have been asked to switch over to cashless transactions by December 31.
On Wednesday, at a meeting of heads of departments, corporations, autonomous bodies, secretaries and bank officials, Chief Secretary R K Srivastava said the state has been chosen to be developed as a model state with cashless economy by December 31, 2016.
Briefing the officials, Ameya Abhayankar, special secretary to the Chief Minister, said, “There are three tracks on which the Goa government in association with banks will be going forward: vendors carrying out financial transactions will be brought under the e-payment mode; there will be focus on consumer education; and government departments, which are in receipt of revenue or disbursing sums to stakeholders or beneficiaries, will be brought under the e-platform.”
The heads of departments have been asked to submit later this week an action plan, wherein they will have to carry out departmental surveys and map transactions for switchover to the electronic mode of payment.
The departments which are yet to embrace the Internet banking system have been asked to adopt the mode at the earliest, while others who successfully adopted the system have been asked to move on to next level and introduce swiping machines at transaction counters.
Furthermore, the departments have been asked to conduct workshops and training session for the staff and the stakeholders.
Excise commissioner Menino D’Souza said, “We have started conducting workshops with bankers for our main office staff. Similar workshops will be conducted at the local offices too, where along with the staff, stakeholders will also be educated on the various options available for e-mode of banking.”
Panchayats being the largest public interface for the government, the Panchayati Raj institutions have been asked to formulate a plan to involve the two-thirds of the state population for moving towards a cashless society.
Panchayat director Gurudas Pilarnkar said that panchayats cater to more than 10 lakh population of the state and by the least estimates the panchayats will have at least 2 lakh families to cater to.
“Therefore, our role becomes very important, and we are working on the plans to transfer all the financial transactions at the panchayat level from cash based to e-mode. We are studying the different available options with the banks for the process.”
The IT department will monitor adaptation of the e-mode banking, for which a dedicated dashboard has been created and the departments have to update their daily reports on the dashboard.
At the meeting, Abhayankar said that information kiosks will also be set up at various places where the public can be made aware of how to enter into a cashless transaction while making purchases.
Bankers have been asked to provide the departments with the necessary help and promote the available options, such as point-of-sale and web-based apps, to the public offices as well as the people to carry out financial transactions on the e-mode.
“Banks need to come up with effective communication strategies to educate people, and one powerful medium is through social media,” Abhayankar added.