Cash-less economy scheme: two pioneering villages show the way

Agra: Two sleepy villages in the country, one in Maharashtra and other in Uttar Pradesh, are creating history and moving faster towards less-cash economy, a long-term goal of the new government at the Centre, leaving behind towns and cities. A marriage in a village in Uttar Pradesh was performed without paying a rupee in cash.

Another village in Maharashtra had done a pioneering job by making all payments, even to grocery shops, through debit cards a couple of days ago. Lived by 10,000 people, the village had got installed 40 swipe machines with the help a public sector bank and a Non-government Organisation (NGO) and accepted cards for all goods and services.

These two villages have set examples for others and nailed the opposition propaganda that the semi-literate and illiterate villagers will reject the scheme and will not go along with the government. They have also set aside Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav's fear that barbers and priests who play major roles in marriages will not accept payment for their services by any other mode except cash.

He as well as some others had predicted that the scheme will end in failure because of these persons who have obsession with cash. It also re-establishes that most of the villagers have either opened bank accounts or are willing to do so.

Both the pundit and the barber of the U P village were paid through cheques and they gleefully accepted them when they were explained the rationale behind it. Another noteworthy feature, the guests invited to the functions, offered gifts not in cash or kind in cheques.

The village, Dulhara, is a part of a district in the state, Fatehpur Sikri , a small town, close to the Taj city (Agra), which was founded by a Mughal emperor. The marriage was performed on Saturday. Gopal Singh Faujdar, a railway employee, who married his daughter to a doctor in the village, had made it clear to the groom's family before the marriage that he would not pay anything in cash and the family had agreed for the success of the less-cash programme.

The development is a talking point in the neighbouring areas.