Cashless people go plastic

Santosh Tripathy, a professor of Utkal University, has long been in possession of debit and credit cards. But he was never comfortable using plastic money for filling petrol or even while shopping. With demonetization raising its ugly head, he was left with no choice but to switch over to plastic money. From buying grocery to paying electricity bills, he has now gone completely plastic."I had got used to transactions using cash. That is why I never cared for cards. But what's the point in facing problems now when there are such convenient options. I have also downloaded a paytm app," he said.
Tripathy is among a growing tribe of people, who had so long been reluctant to use such wallets and cards, but are fast making the switch to these after the sudden scrapping of the Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes. At a time when even street vendors have started accepting payment through paytm, people from various walks of life are switching to wallets and cards. "I would invariably reject phone calls of credit card offers from banks. But this time around, I took the call and intend to get one soon," said Namita Kumari, a nursing professional. At a time when other parts of the country witnessed widespread violence with people queueing up for cash at banks, the situation is Odisha was peaceful.
The thumbs up to the Modi government initiative by the Naveen Patnaik government also sent a signal that it is a good move and helped avoid any possible unwanted situation, he added.