Hyderabad: The Telangana state government on Friday moved to revive business activities at vegetable markets that had been badly hit in the last 10 days due to shortage of cash especially lower denomination currency.
A cashless transactions initiative was launched in Kukatpally Rythu Bazaar to ease “change” problem. Consumers were issued tokens worth Rs 5, Rs 10 and Rs 20 denominations as they enter into an agreement with the IDFC Bank.
Marketing minister T. Harish Rao, who launched the initiative, said the new system would help overcome the change problem being faced by small traders, farmers and consumers in vegetable markets.
"Due to currency shortage, the activities in Rythu Bazaars had come to a halt in the last 10 days. Everyone is bringing Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. Sellers were not in a position to sell, while buyers are forced to leave empty handed. While sellers and farmers are suffering huge losses due to decay of vegetables, the buyers are facing severe hardships in obtaining vegetables. We have decided to bridge this gap by introducing cashless transactions," Mr Rao said.
The minister said the initiative was a huge hit within no time with people thronging markets to purchase vegetables by taking tokens and sellers selling off entire stock.
