Guntur: Cashless transactions are fast becoming a thing of the past. People are reluctant to use cashless facilities, which has made the government’s much-hyped campaign a failed episode.
The AP Government has decided to cancel the cashless system and restore cash transactions at ration shops. Causes for the failure of the cashless system include slow internet facilities, difficulties in connecting to the server, repeated failure of the iris and fingerprint recognition system, and the failure of transactions. The hassle involved has made the system non-viable for traders. In many shops, the ePose machines have already been kept aside and a majority of the sales are conducted via cash transactions.
After demonetisation, the AP government had introduced the Aadhaar-enabled Public Distri-bution System (AePDS) under which ration cards were linked to the bank accounts of ration card-holders. There are 1,38,67,107 ration card-holders across the 13 districts of AP; of these, the iris’ of 76,412 cardholders have successfully been scanned in the month of July, while the iris scans of 85,038 persons have failed.
Similarly, the fingerprint scans of 16,03,494 cardholders have failed. Hundreds of complaints about the improper functioning of ePos machines and the failure of online transactions have been filed.
B. Gopalam says that it takes ration card-holders at least two to three days every month to get ration due to technical problems in the cashless system. He says that often the connection with the server gets severed and is not restored for hours. He adds that despite there being money in the bank, the ePos machines often reject transactions citing insufficient funds, and people are left without ration.
He welcomed the government’s decision to cancel the cashless system and asks them never to repeat such a horrific experiment.
Ration dealers who have faced difficulties for the past few months are also happy to return to cash transactions.
They say that though the intention of the cashless system was good, it failed because of technical glitches.
Minister for civil supplies P. Pulla Rao said that CM N. Chandrababu Naidu decided to respond to the plight of the public by cancelling the problematic cashless module. He said that cash transactions would be restored through the issuance of orders.
