WHAT WAS THE SURVEY ALL ABOUT
* Seeking details of traders and bank accounts
* Are market players using POS or Pay TM/UPI
* How many customers visit traders/vendors per day
* How many customers ask for mobile transfer facility
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Days after government decided to make five markets cashless in the first phase, officials went about this ambitious mission which evoked mixed responses in Panaji and Margao on the opening day on Tuesday.
Nearly six teams comprising of officials from banks and state government along with market committee representatives went across the Panaji market seeking information from vendors. Altogether, officials of six banks - State Bank of India, Bank of India, Canara Bank, Bank of India, HDFC and ICICI - participated in the programme.
However, bank officials beat a hasty retreat from Margao’s Municipal markets “ New market and the Gandhi market “ as the cashless mission received lukewarm or hostile response from the small traders and vendors.
At the Gandhi market, vegetable and readymade garments market controlled by the Azgaonkar brothers, the survey officials withdrew from the market within minutes as they had to answer a barrage of questions from agitated vendors. Canara Bank official Dinesh Hegde along with Margao Municipal market inspector Seema Godge, who had made their presence felt in the market early morning, had no option other than to withdraw from the market within 15 minutes for want of support and cooperation from the market vendors. The vendors told the officials that they need to come through proper channel via their Associations and Union before taking the decision to call on the vendors individually.
With the vendors insisting that the officials approach the vendors through proper channel, the Canara Bank officer contacted the nodal bank officer before taking the decision to call it a day.
At the New market, a two-member team comprising of officials from the Bank of India and Goa State Cooperative Bank and accompanied by Municipal inspector Anil Shirodkar could not make inroads into the market for want of cooperation.
Before they could complete the exercise of surveying even 10 traders in the new market, traders questioned the team over the motive and intent of their presence in the market. While Bank of India officer Nilesh Vaidya and the Goa state cooperative bank official insisted their presence in the New market was only to conduct a survey and not to supply machines for cash transactions, the traders were not ready to buy the argument.
The traders demanded that the bank officials sit and discuss with the association President Vinod Shirodkar before interacting with them individually. While a couple of vendors submitted their details to the officials, others raised a host of questions. Left with no option, the team later withdrew from the market after communicating the situation to the nodal officer.
Earlier in the day, Shirodkar told the bank officials that traders are not so happy with the presence of the officials when they never bother to inquire about their welfare in times of distress. “Many of our traders have taken bank loans, but officials have never shown any concern when traders find it difficult to repay the loans. The traders feel that you have come for your own interest to do business and to supply the machines for cashless transactions,” Shirodkar told the bank officials.
Nilesh Vaidya later told the media that they are withdrawing from the market since the traders have asked them to visit them through the proper channel. “We will discuss the situation with the nodal officer before taking a call on when next to come to the markets,” he said.
“We tried to convince the traders that our presence was only to conduct a survey to find out the number of traders doing cashless transactions and the customers they receive every day, but in vain,” he added.
Sources in the know said another team, which conducted the survey at the SGPDA market, did not receive encouraging response from the vendors. The team had to wrap up the exercise after interacting with only 30-odd vendors
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POLICE GOING CASHLESS!
* Senior officers of Goa Police on Tuesday convened a meeting of the top bankers from Axis Bank and the State Bank
* To explore the possibility of making the department cashless by January 2017 starting with traffic police
* Senior middle-rank officers of the police to be trained by bankers starting by the end of this week
* Trained officers will then pass on the tips to the rest of the staff across the length and breadth of Goa
* Stress will be laid on ensuring that fines, fees and accounting are done in a cashless manner
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Banks to cover 8 lakh people
on digital platform in Goa
PADMAVATI PRABHU / PANAJI
THREE-PHASE EXERCISE
* Covering 8,900 persons by November 30 including 1,000 vendors and 7,900 end users
* 2,23,000 persons by December 10 including 3,000 vendors and 2,20,000 end users
* Covering 5,68,100 persons by December 30 including 6,000 vendors and 5,62,100 end users
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Aiming to make Goa a model state in the field of cashless economy, a road map was laid for banks which aims to cover 8 lakh Goans on the digital platform by December 30. Presently, there are 56 banks across the State with a total of 808 branches. The average population served per branch is 2300 approximately.
As per the target of digitisation by banks, it will have to cover 8 lakh Goans, including 10,000 vendors and 7,90,000 end users. As per the assumptions made in the roadmap to cashless Goa, in all there are 10,000 vendors including retailers and shopkeepers with an average population of 80 persons served by each vendor. The total population is however 18 lakh approximately, including migrants and total working population including migrants is 8 lakh. Therefore, migrating 8 lakh working population into digital platform is expected to cover entire population.
The support required by the banks from the State Government, however, includes availability of free wi-fi across the State, particularly at market places; readiness by general public with aadhar card and address proof for enabling bankers to take them on digital board, support for KYC documents and enhancement of UPI server capacity.
