System in place for Aadhaar-linked payment through state but shopkeepers and consumers yet to cheer
Ahmedabad: When young housewife Sarojben Rabari comes to buy rice from the Public Distribution System (PDS) shop in Ramnagar, on the northern fringes here, the shopkeeper asks her to pay by using her Aadhaar card. The woman refuses – she has neither an Aadhaar card or a bank account. She wishes to pay in cash; after all, it’s a paltry Rs 20.
The shop was anything but crowded, being the end of the month. As such, the average transaction size at these shops are in the range of Rs 60-100. Hence, the preference for cash.
The situation is similar in most PDS outlets around here, Vadodara, Surat or Rajkot, the main urban centres in Gujarat. A state whose government recently claimed to have implemented the digital system across all PDS shops.
A reality check shows while efforts are definitely on, PDS transactions are anything but cashless. For instance, a shop in the Ghatlodia area of western Ahmedabad was not only awaiting a point-of-sale (machine) delivery but also facing a technical snag in the food and civil supplies department’s portal, through which shopowners are supposed to do digital transactions.
"My bank account hardly has any cash most of the time. My earnings are just enough to meet our daily requirement. I am not even aware of how to use a debit card and do not feel it is a secure process. I, therefore, prefer cash," says Ganeshbhai Marwadi, 42, a mason who came to buy wheat and sugar at Ghatlodia.
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